Abstract
Installation of telecom towers in remote areas especially in developing countries like India is a major problem for telecom industries because of the unavailability of reliable power supply. The grid supply is not regular in these countries and up to some extent, they are dependent on diesel generators for power supply. But these diesel generators have some major issues such as high operating cost due to high cost of fuel, transportation cost of fuel, high maintenance cost, and these diesel generators also emits pollution to the environment. In presented work, an approach has been proposed for telecom companies for providing power supply to their telecom towers. An economic cost analysis has been proposed by considering various criteria such as cost, air & noise pollution and reliability, etc. Some power supply alternatives including unconventional and hybrid of conventional and unconventional alternatives have been compared to find the solution such as diesel-powered telecom towers, solar powered telecom towers, and their hybrids. The main objective of this work is to provide a reliable, cost effective and environment friendly Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) system for a particular site in India (Uttar Pradesh). A number of criteria are involved in discussed problem in order to select an effective power supply source. Therefore, the problem has been considered as a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. To select the best alternative, a Fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS based approach has been proposed. Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy process) has been used for calculating the weightage of criteria and the concept of Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) has been applied for ranking the alternatives. The results give assured reliability and sustainability for remote areas using a solar photovoltaic (PV)-diesel generator hybrid energy system.
Highlights
The tremendous increment in the number of mobile phone subscribers has led to unexpected growth in the telecom towers industry in India
Grid supply is not a reliable power source to supply the electricity to the telecom towers situated in interior rural areas anywhere in the country because it requires 24 hours of continuous supply
Some hybrid energy sources have been considered to find out the solution of the problem on the basis of a number of criteria such as Reliability, pollution, and total cost, etc. the problem has been considered as a Multi Criteria Decision making (MCDM) problem and a Fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS based approach has been proposed for solving the problem
Summary
Grid supply is not a reliable power source to supply the electricity to the telecom towers situated in interior rural areas anywhere in the country because it requires 24 hours of continuous supply. Diesel generators have some common issues such as their high running cost, maintenance cost, noise, and air (SOx, COx, and NOx) pollution emitted to the environment. A hybrid source of energy may be the best solution for this type of problem. The availability of these sources is again an issue because solar and wind are available but hydropower, geothermal power, biomass, etc. A case study has been conducted to obtain a reliable, cost effective and environment friendly remote area power supply (RAPS) system for a particular site (Mohand, near Daat Kali Temple) in India (Uttar Pradesh) for installation of a telecom tower. The given problem has been considered on an MCDM problem and an approach based on FUZZY AHP & TOPSIS has been proposed to solve this problem
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