Digicel Group has deployed an energy saver across its network in Jamaica, which is expected to cut cost by US$1.4 million ($130 million) annually.

The eVolution Networks’ Smart Energy Solution (SES) is a fully-automated, intelligent software solution, which deactivates base stations during low traffic demand, while ensuring that subscribers are provided with continued high quality of service.

“The solution fits seamlessly into any multi-vendor, multi-technology network, eliminating the need for Digicel to invest additional capital in base stations and allowing Digicel’s engineers to continue working as usual without having to divert any time and energy to system maintenance,” said a release issued by the telecommunications company yesterday.

Digicel began testing SES in early 2012, achieving significant reductions in energy consumption.

In October, Digicel fully commissioned SES network-wide, becoming the world’s first mobile operator with the “green solution”, which should result in energy and carbon savings of 2.8 gigawatt-hours and 1,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) respectively.

“eVolution’s SES is the most mature and cost optimised energy saving platform on the market,” said Stephen Curran, network design director for Digicel Group. “It provides a valuable solution for cutting energy across our base stations and best positions us to capitalise on the shift to a fully green network.

“Having successfully completed the deployment of eVolution’s solution across most of our base stations, we are now ready to demonstrate the full capabilities and unique advantages of the solution across our 30 other markets across the globe.”

As soon as it became operational on the Digicel Jamaica network, SES conducted both a thorough radio coverage analysis and a deep study of the typical daily traffic patterns of each existing base station across the network.

These two steps allowed SES to create individual traffic profiles for each base station across Digicel’s network — as well as to fully understand which stations could be safely deactivated while still maintaining service integrity.

“After more than a year of close collaboration with Digicel — in which the value of SES has been proven — we feel confident in our ability to meet the performance and maturity expectations of future customers in markets around the world,” said Roy Morad, CEO of eVolution Networks. “We are very proud of the savings – both monetary and environmental – which we have delivered to Digicel and we look forward to extending our partnership with both Digicel Jamaica and the entire Digicel Group.”