Eltek Philippines Success Story: AC Hybrid Power Unit installed in Globe’s Class C Outdoor Sites

By Deo A. Pulian, Eltek Philippines

The Philippines, April 2022- Delta has successfully installed AC hybrid power units in Globe’s Class C Outdoor Sites for generator set automation that generates fuel cost savings.

Globe Telecom Inc., is a major provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines. The company operates the largest mobile network in the country and is one of the largest fixed-line and broadband networks. As of 2021, Globe's total mobile subscriber base reached 86.6 million.

The AC hybrid power unit uses Eltek’s Smartpack S Controller, which helped Globe’s Operations team with their operational expense savings by utilizing the battery back-up to support the load during power failure. 

The controller is set at a certain voltage (47VDC) to give a signal to the generator to back up the load once the battery capacity is already low. This resulted in significant fuel savings including fuel delivery and hauling cost. 

Eltek Philippines has already implemented close to 1,000 ACHPU installation sites as of 2021. Another initiative by Globe is to adopt ACHPU for the upcoming new site rollout.

In addition, Eltek Philippines has introduced to Globe the use of SoNick Batteries for core facilities and data centers as a good alternative replacement for the traditional (VRLA Type) batteries due to the following advantages and benefits:

• Traditional Batteries for MSC sites occupy a lot of space and would need airconditioning systems to ensure consistent performance of discharging and charging of batteries.

• The objective of this proposal is to provide an alternative solution using sodium nickel chloride batteries which can save space for more than 50% of the area being occupied by traditional batteries and makes it possible to utilize space for other equipment or future battery expansion.
• In addition, it will cut the cost of electricity, particularly on the energy being consumed by airconditioning units since the battery we are offering does not need aircon while maintaining a consistent performance regardless of room temperature.
• One other feature of this new battery is its long service life of about 20 years which is a major criterion in Core sites to minimize battery replacement due to reaching the life expectancy for traditional batteries.

Globe has used the SoNick batteries both for new sites' power system back-up and for the change out of EUL (End of Life) batteries (Old VRLA batteries change out to SoNick batteries).

The SoNck Battery manufacturer (FZSonick) has agreed to provide a ten (10) Year warranty on the SoNick batteries supplied to Globe starting last year.  Previously, the warranty given was only seven years.

Also, SoNick batteries do not require any CCDT (Constant Current Discharge Test).  The maintenance required, as per the manufacturer’s recommendations, is to extract the Data Logs from the Batteries and send the logs to the manufacturer for data log analysis on the health life of the batteries.  Extraction of Data Logs and data Log Analysis will be performed every 5 years.

About the Author (Guest Contributor)

Deo A. Pulian

I’ve been with Eltek BU for 21 years as Country Manager for Eltek PH providing sales & support for major Telco operators. It’s always a challenge to provide new technology & benefits to our customers/operators. However, with Eltek/Delta & our 3^rd party partner achieving those goals is easy as we have reliable products & good support coming from the BUs. 

Share