Safaricom Invests $1.1 Million In General Electric's Durathon Batteries, Expects ROI In 3 Years

Safaricom has signed a Sh96 million ($1.1million) deal with global energy and technology firm, General Electric (GE) to provide its cell towers with 48 General Electric Durathon Batteries that will help capacitate its network to run efficiently in case of power outages.

The back-up batteries will be connected to Safaricom’s base stations that are not connected to a standby diesel generator. The company procured batteries that will serve 25 of its base stations in Nairobi.

Sustainable power supply is one of the major worry for business owners in Africa.

With about 1,700 base stations in Kenya, Safaricom use an average of 35 litres of fuel daily to power a single base station and maintain its network up-time in cases of prolong power outages.

It has in recent times; turn to solar energy to power some of its cell towers located in regions that receive abundant sunlight.

"Our primary energy source at Safaricom has been electricity from the national grid. Unfortunately the supply has been and has continued to be unpredictable," Safaricom's Chief Technology Officer Thibaud Rerolle said.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said its cell sites connected to the national grid experience up to four hours of electricity blackouts daily, leading to network glitches, loss of business and high operations costs.

“The introduction of using this technology will ensure that our customers receive uninterrupted usage of our mobile services,” Collymore said on Tuesday.

He added that “Energy costs make up the biggest component in running a cell tower.”

Safaricom hopes to cut down its diesel costs used to power generators by half and achieve a return on investment before three years.

The Durathon batteries require only two to three hours recharging as opposed to conventional batteries that last a maximum of three hours.

Compared to diesel generators, 48 GE Durathon batteries have less carbon footprint as an alternative source of energy and can also be remotely monitored from a control centre.

According to GE President Africa, Jay Ireland, Durathon series batteries are generally designed to provide standby power to critical applications in the Telecom industry.

 "The GE Durathon batteries have an 8 - 10 hours life, they are dense than normal batteries, temperature insensitive and they are build out of 95 percent recycled materials."

He explained that "It is one of the first batteries in the world to be designed for telecom applications and by using the batteries as the primary energy source in a continuous charge-discharge cycling (CDS) operating mode, fuel costs and emissions can be substantially reduced and overall system efficiency dramatic improved."

"This battery is the first of its kind in Africa and Safaricom is the first mobile network operator globally to adopt this technology. We believe in a great future for Africa - this region and this country," he said.

The GE boss however express his company interest partnering with stakeholders to broaden the innovation play in Kenya and the rest of Africa.