UK-based engineering pioneer Bladon Micro Turbine has launched its first commercial product, the Bladon MTG12 – a 12 kW (15 kVA) microturbine generator set (genset) dedicated to powering global telecoms towers.

The microturbine genset manufacturer aims to dominate the telecoms tower market where network grids can be unreliable and tens of thousands of towers are off the electricity grid, particularly in Africa and Asia.

“There is an increasing appetite from the market now to embrace innovative ways to tackle this difficult problem, especially in Africa and Asia,” said TowerXchange founder and CEO Kieron Osmotherly.

The genset was unveiled at the TowerXchange Meetup Africa 2018, held in Sandton from October 9 to 10.

Bladon hopes to capture the opportunity of “serving this market better than the existing technology”, with a total cost of ownership more than 30% less than the traditional diesel gensets currently used to power telecoms towers.

“Over 50% of a towerco network’s operating expenses can be attributed to maintenance and fuel costs for their energy equipment. Any technology or process that can reliably reduce this goes straight to their bottom line,” he said.

Bladon explains that, with more than four-million mobile phone towers worldwide providing wireless communications to over seven-billion mobile devices 24 hours a day, distributing reliable power to all these wireless connections is a challenging and costly task.

The genset demonstrates how effective, reliable, clean power can be generated for the telecoms tower market, with field trials completed this year in South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria.

“The disruptive micro turbine generator . . . offers dependable power for significantly longer than the incumbent conventional diesel gensets, requiring less frequent intervention, with reduced environmental impact and greater security from theft,” said Bladon CEO Paul Barrett.

The genset offers up to 8 000-hour, or once a year, service intervals, cutting site visits by 90% when compared with conventional diesel-powered gensets, while its fuel flexibility lowers fuel costs and will reduce fuel theft with tamper-proof internal hinges, single service door access and no parts that are reusable in conventional diesel gensets.

The operator is able to use conventional diesel in the genset and preserve the supply chain or switch to kerosene or paraffin fuel, or even mix the two fuels, without any modification to reduce operating expenditure further.

Other features reduce environmental impact, such as its ultralow-noise, vibration-free and low emissions characteristics, with only one moving part, and through the 100% reduction of oil and disposal costs as it requires no engine oil or liquid coolant.

The Bladon microturbine genset is Euro V emissions standard compliant, producing 80% less carbon monoxide and 60% less nitrogen oxide than conventional diesel gensets.

“We have been working with Bladon for the last 12 months refining the offering of its microturbine genset for the African market. We are now ready to show to our clients how the genset can transform the way discrete reliable power is delivered to the telecoms tower with an astonishing once a year service regime compared with once a month for a conventional diesel genset,” said Abbott Technologies CEO Andrew Edmondson.

Bladon is working with leading mobile network operators and towercos to deploy its microturbine genset.