TowerXchange MENA Meetup – Bladon Micro Turbine and its Southern African partner Abbott Technologies announce over 3 years of deploying Bladon’s Micro Turbine Gensets for some of the largest mobile networks and TowerCos in South Africa saving over 50% in operating and maintenance costs per site per year and eliminating engine oil/liquid coolant costs by 100%

There has been almost 200% growth in demand for mobile broadband services in urban areas with the sharp increase in people working from home due to the COVID crisis. This has been aggravated further due to regular load shedding by the utility in South Africa, thus the need for cost effective, reliable power to deliver these services has never been higher.

Mobile networks and TowerCo’s have seen increased pressure to deploy more towers even without ready access to grid power. Traditionally the only solution has been to install diesel gensets with combination of batteries and or solar panels. But this method is expensive due to maintenance visits of up to twice a month, fuel theft, noise and exhaust pollution which can be a problem for sites near residential areas.

Deploying the Bladon Micro Turbine Genset virtually eliminates site service visits with only one site service visit necessary annually. Furthermore, the MTG can be fuelled with kerosene, diesel or a blend of the two which deters theft and reduces fuels costs due to cheaper kerosene fuel costs per liter. This combination of ultra-low maintenance, lower fuel costs, quiet and low emissions operation provides a complete proposition that is simple, scalable and reduces monthly operating costs by over 50% compared to diesel gensets alone or diesel genset hybrids.