Real Wireless, 1 May 2024 – Real Wireless, an independent telecoms strategy advisor, is pleased to announce that it has won grant funding from the Innovate UK – Net Zero Living Digital competition by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to deliver a new data driven digital service that addresses how wireless networks can evolve to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Real Wireless’ winning project titled MoRTEC (Monitoring Real Time Electricity Consumption) will take place over 6 months exploring how the wireless industry can accelerate its net zero agenda.
The project will also explore solutions for how power grid operations can be improved to have higher resilience and reduced disturbances, as well as offer additional revenue opportunities to wireless infrastructure providers. Head of Network Modelling and Simulation, Dr. Anastasios Karousos will lead the work.
“We believe this funding from UKRI will help us meet our goals of developing net zero solutions for the telecoms sector. In this project, we will be modelling the use of smart-metering equipment at mobile network base station sites accompanied by electricity generation and storage systems, such as PV panels and batteries. We will model how the system generates and stores energy when the prices are low and makes use of this stored energy at peak mobile network traffic times when the base stations consume the most power. This will result in reduced energy costs for wireless infrastructure operators and providers.” says John Okas, CCO at Real Wireless.
“We will also analyse the potential to export stored energy back into the grid allowing these virtual power plants at base station sites to maintain grid resilience at times of peak demand. The intent for such systems when deployed, would be to provide real-time electricity consumption data to network operators, which will help in their analysis to reach net zero by maximising the use of stored energy.”
Real Wireless’s overall aim is to develop a software tool that it will use to advise mobile network operators and infrastructure providers (tower companies and neutral hosts,) on the optimal site selection for deploying the energy monitoring, generation and storage systems. This site selection algorithm will be based on factors including network traffic demand, location, environmental conditions across the seasons and the costs associated with the installation and operation of these energy systems.
This project has been driven by future requirements where Real Wireless is looking towards 6G systems, associated net zero requirements, and the need for more intelligent RAN infrastructure. coming from the Next Generation Mobile Networks trade association.
The Innovate UK competition was created for micro and small businesses to develop and deliver net zero solutions through data-driven applications. £1.5 million has been assigned to the project.
Real Wireless works with clients to find sustainable solutions to the challenges they face in the telecom ecosystem. Find out more here - https://real-wireless.com/expertise/
