1. END TO END ENERGY SOLUTIONS WORKSHOP – TELECOM Tuesday , 25th Nov 2014
Ashok Juneja
Founder AJ TELECONSULTING
& Chief Advisor, Applied Solar Technologies

2. Applied Solar Technologies rolled out its first solar RE solution in February 2007
Since then AST has become India’s largest ESCO with over 3000 installations for the telecom sites, over 300 for ATM machines and over 80 petrol stations
Past six years have been full of learning
Diesel is the most expensive solution both economically and environmentally and it is the solution used exclusively when there is no other solution
We all strive to reduce diesel consumption to as little as possible
Power requirements for Telecom have a very high degree of uptime requirement (no more than 20 seconds of downtime in 24 hours) which makes the total cost of power very high
Furthermore this uptime can only be achieved with multiple sources of power and delivery of power as a service
Any solution to reduce diesel consumption is very capital intensive and so we must balance customer needs with the IRR needs of the investors and risk mitigation needs of the lenders – without this balance there is no business possible
Long term contracts become a necessity for capital intensive businesses

3. Diverse customers base

4. Types of Services Offered
Solar Hybrid end-to-end energy as a service: ATC/BIL/Indus/Idea
Energy Efficiency on a Cluster Basis: MTS
Pilot Project with Social Foundations: Rural Microgrid
Solar without diesel end-to-end energy as a service: SBI/PNB/BOB
All services offered under opex model backed by full SLA needed by our customers

5. Telecom Customer Needs .. Our Experience
Customers demand 99.95% uptime even in most difficult rural areas where the cost of this uptime is very high –
But it is hard to justify the cost of this expensive uptime requirement
Customer demand heavy diesel reduction (the carbon footprint reduction)
Customers want all the equipment O&M (SMPS/PIU/AC/battery/DG etc) so that there is one point of responsibility but lenders are apprehensive of such deliverables
Customers want “cluster” model so that ESCO can take care of both RE and non-RE sites

6. ESCO Company on the other hand needs to satisfy its investors and lenders
Investors and lenders participate only if
Fund requirement is large (large orders year over year) of at least 1000 towers per customer
Minimum 10 year take or pay contracts with no on-demand exit clauses
Commercial terms which meet several cash flow criteria of lenders
IRR at least as per industry norm
ALL PARTIES (CUSTOMERS, ESCOS, and INVESTORS and LENDERS) will have a win-win only if
All parties understand each other’s requirements and are willing to compromise
Contract sanctity is maintained at all times

7. Support required at the Policy level
Provide RESCO/ESCO industry Infrastructure status so that the cost of credit comes down
Remove any entry tax on RE equipment and solutions
Access to soft loans
Permit blending of grid/DG/Solar/other Res power as an integrated source of energy as a service solution. Current regulations do not permit sale of grid power
RE in distributed, high uptime, cannot be sold in terms of KWH but it has to be offered as a service – this recognition is important to understand the total cost of doing business

8. Thank You