Techno economic assessment of renewable energy resources in service sector (Base Transceiver Stations) towards self-sustainability across Pakistan /

Abstract

A nation's socioeconomic progress is significantly impacted by the availability of telecom services. These services are being used by a rising number of people, and this trend is expected to continue. Consequently, there are now more telecom towers needed to offer these services. The demand for electricity must rise gradually with the widespread expansion of telecom towers. Therefore, Rapid growth in a number of developing mobile telecommunications sectors presents network operators with difficulties such as poor service quality and congestion, mainly because there isn't a dependable, reasonably priced power source in these places. In order to provide a sustainable and reasonably priced energy alternative for the developing country, this study provides a detailed examination of the core ideas behind renewable energy technology (RET). In addition, prioritizing the decarbonization of telecom towers is also essential in order to lessen their carbon footprint, especially in light of the mounting concerns about climate change. The Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) encapsulation telecom sector of Pakistan can implement hybrid standalone systems that are dominated by renewable energy sources, according to the comprehensive techno-economic optimization approach presented in this study. In this study, 42 independents conventional BTS sites are used for standalone hybrid BTS systems and out of these 42 BTS sites, 15 BTS sites are used for EVs charging stations based On-grid hybrid BTS systems. These BTS sites are taken from north, central and south region of Pakistan. the software used to perform proposed standalone hybrid BTS sites is HOMER PRO. The performance evaluation parameters are used in this thesis are net present cost, Operating cost, levelized cost of energy, internal rate of return, return on investment, Payback period, Capacity shortage fraction, and excess energy. The results show that in standalone hybrid BTS system, of the 42 BTS locations, 21 of them had an optimal configuration of solar energy and battery storage, with a diesel generator serving as a backup source. The optimal configuration of biomass, solar, and battery storage is found at the 07 BTS sites. There is abundant in flow of hydro water in northern region of Pakistan, thus, 05 BTS sites comes out with optimal configuration of solar, wind and battery storage system. Since wind energy systems predominate in the southern region, 05 BTS locations have the optimal configuration of solar and wind with the battery storage system having diesel generator as a backup source for sustainability. In the context of the telecom industry, particularly Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), hybrid renewable energy systems with electric vehicle charging stations can give a consistent and environmentally friendly power output needed for providing a dependable and uninterrupted power supply. This study provides the BTS telecom businesses with a thorough implementation method. The proposed On-grid hybrid proposed framework offers a thorough techno-economic assessment of 15 independent sites spread across Pakistan's North, South, and Central regions based on actual load profiles, with the goal of reducing significant parameters like net present cost (NPC), operational costs, levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and diesel generator's running hours. The grid extension and ecologically friendly electric vehicle (EV) charging stations are also added to these 15 BTS sites. In addition, incentives, such as bonus depreciation, investment tax credit and modified accelerated cost recovery system, are also included in the study's financial model to produce a complete financial picture. Ultimately, an environmental assessment aimed at lowering carbon emissions is carried out, along with a sensitivity analysis for many uncertain variables like solar irradiance, wind speed, inflation and discount rate, project lifetime and load variation. It was observed from results that average LCOE of existing conventional BTS sites is 0.38225 $/kWh, while after integrating renewable resources, average LCOE of standalone hybrid BTS sites comes out at 0.14 $/kWh. The net current cost decreases from an average of 0.4 $M in the existing BTS to an average of 0.1 $M in the proposed standalone hybrid BTS due to the reduction in fuel usage reliance. Therefore, after grid extension LCOE and NPC reduces due to completely neglected diesel generator. The NPC and LCOE of On-grid hybrid BTS sites vary from 0.00407 $/kWh to 0.03384 $/kWh and 0.00434 $M to 0.09173 $M, respectively. On the other hand, the average LCOE decreases even further when electric vehicle charging stations and incentives (bonus depreciation, investment tax credit and modified accelerated cost recovery system) are combined. Therefore, the results of the comparative and optimization study demonstrate that EVs based On-grid charging stations BTS sites are most sustainable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Both the living conditions of host communities and the caliber of mobile services will be enhanced by the suggested approach, which will make BTS operations more

economical, environmentally friendly, and consistently effective. The suggested strategy will enhance Pakistan telecom sector and mobile service standards by reliability, reducing costs, and enhancing the environmental and reliable efficiency of BTS operations.