Microturbine generator sets (gensets) designer, developer, engineer and manufacturer Bladon Micro Turbine has developed a microturbine genset specifically for the global telecoms tower market.

The Coventry-based group’s first commercial product, the 12 kW Bladon MTG12, aims to dominate the market by powering telecoms towers at a total cost of ownership about 30% lower than diesel-based technology.

“Bladon’s microturbine technology is a game changer in the delivery of reliable and cost-effective power to the telecoms tower industry. We are seeing over 50% reductions in operating expenditure (opex) through [a reduction in] service site visits, fuel costs and fuel/asset loss,” says Bladon CEO Paul Barrett.

The Bladon microturbine offers longer service intervals, fuel flexibility and features designed to deter theft and reduce environmental impact, including ultralow noise and low emissions.

Bladon demonstrated the benefits during field trials undertaken this year in South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria.

“The well-established telecoms tower power market is ideal to showcase the benefits of our disruptive microturbine, which offers dependable power for significantly longer [periods] than the incumbent conventional diesel genset, requiring less frequent intervention, with reduced environmental impact and greater security from theft,” continues Barrett.

Bladon now has ambitions of serving the telecoms tower market “better than the existing technology”, particularly in Africa and Asia, where network grids can be unreliable and tens of thousands of towers are off-grid.

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

The distribution of reliable power to the four-million mobile phone towers scattered across the globe that provide wireless communications to over seven-billion mobile devices 24/7 is a challenging and costly task.

“Over 50% of a towerco network’s opex can be attributed to maintenance and fuel costs for its energy equipment. Any technology or process that can reliably reduce this goes straight to the towers bottom line,” Osmotherly points out.

The features that unlock and transform the cost efficiencies when replacing a conventional diesel genset with the Bladon microturbine genset include 8 000-hour service intervals, which reduce site visits by 90% from once a month to once a year or longer.

“Bladon’s microturbine genset has only one moving part and the reliability synonymous with turbine technology, delivering longer life than a traditional diesel genset,” Barrett explains.

The genset does not require engine oil or liquid coolant, which, in addition to further reducing oil and disposal costs by 100%, reduces the environmental impact.

In line with this, the genset is Euro V-emissions-standard compliant and produces 80% less carbon monoxide and 60% less nitrogen oxide than conventional diesel gensets.

The genset is also quiet, with a sound envelope of <65 dB at 1 m, and is vibration- free.

Further, the MTG12 genset is able to use conventional diesel to preserve the supply chain or switch to kerosene or paraffin fuel – or both – without any modification.

The genset has a single service door access, tamperproof internal hinges, tamperproof shrouded lock hasps and a shallow service area, in addition to not having reusable parts for conventional diesel gensets, making it less attractive to thieves.