5G and the challenges with rising energy costs

Pedro Al Shara, CEO of TS Shara Brazil, a national manufacturer of nobreaks and voltage stabilizers, explains how 5G will impact energy consumption.

The industry has been talking a lot about the potential of 5G, especially after the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) approved the auction notice in late February. The IDC consultancy estimates that, in the next two years, 5G will provide revenues of US$ 2.7 billion (R$ 13.5 billion), starting from new business involving Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Big Data and analytics, IoT, cloud, security and robotics.

However, while there is optimism about the services that 5G will allow and the interaction with other technologies, there are significant concerns and challenges about rising costs, especially with energy. Estimates suggest that 5G networks can be up to 90% more efficient per unit of traffic than 4G. But even so, they will need much more energy due to the density of the network, the great dependence they have on IT systems and infrastructure, the increase in network use and the accelerated growth of traffic.

According to 451 Research by Vertiv, a supplier of equipment and services for critical infrastructure, an increase in the order of 150% to 170% in energy consumption is projected in the Telecom sector by 2026.

With all the innovation that 5G represents, more devices will be able to access the mobile Internet at the same time, using the same signal. As a consequence, there will be even more need to protect routers against power problems, to ensure signal continuity to all of these devices. On the other hand, mobile phone companies will also need to guarantee the continuity of the Internet signal, protecting their equipment against problems in the power grid.

One way to reduce energy consumption is to modernize the network. The demand for energy protection solutions has been growing. The arrival of 5G should revolutionize integrated systems and the ways of communicating around the world. The integrated systems available and various services and platforms, require networks and equipment with increasingly faster and more effective responses as they are connected all the time.

We know that the electric grid in Brazil is unstable, that’s why it’s important for operators to constantly analyze how to protect their critical IT infrastructure from power outages and other electrical network related disturbances. In this case, suitable installations of nobreaks and inverters can contribute to the perfect functioning during these situations, but they will also be responsible for filtering and keeping the energy clean from noise and interference. We are surrounded by machines, processes and devices that can benefit from the reserve energy of nobreaks, especially in the 5G era, which allows us to be in a privileged position for the development of new business and technology opportunities. Undoubtedly, this will be the most transformative communication technology of this generation, enabling new services and requiring resources for the advanced management of the entire infrastructure, in addition to other challenges, such as energy consumption.