MTN Project, Nigeria

Project description

With aim to accelerate the conversion of its towers to renewable energy, MTN has launched an evaluation programme for Diesel/ Solar hybrid standalone power plants. In a joint venture with the Nigeria Energy Company AO Demarg, Phaesun has taken part in this implementation programme. Phaesun has designed, supplied, deployed, commissioned and monitored the diesel/solar power solution under real conditions to feed BTS telecom loads previously powered by diesel gensets 24h/7d.

Why was PV selected?

High solar irradiation in Nigeria and high diesel costs have pushed MTN Nigeria to test our Hybrid Solar Power System. The conversion of towers to solar technology made it possible to provide more energy independence for the telco equipment, drastically reduce OPEX, as well as considerably reduce noise pollution by reducing the daily time exposure for diesel generating to less than 30%.

Special challenges

The main challenge was to save a large amount of diesel savings by means of a drastic reduction of the consumption of oil.
The project was expected to provide savings of more than 70%. Due to a proper design and thanks to our Phaeweb solution, a site supervision proved that our Hybrid Solar Power System achieved to halt the genset for more than 85% of the time. Phaesun & AO Demarg also managed to adapt our power system to the existing site without further extensions or area requirements which was another key issue.
Finally, the transition from an existing pure diesel power system to our hybrid solar power
system was made within a few minutes avoiding a disconnection of customers from the GSM net.