24-25 march, hyatt regency casablanca, morocco esco … · 1 | esco roundtable 2020, 24-25 march,...

| ESCO Roundtable 2020, 24-25 March, Hyatt Regency Casablanca, Morocco | www.towerxchange.com1

ESCO Roundtable24-25 March, Hyatt Regency Casablanca, Morocco

Cultivating operationally effective partnerships to positively impact efficiency, service quality, environment and community

Cover image courtesy of Camusat

To discuss your participation, contact Sarah on +44 7714 775700 or email [email protected]

Organised by:

Foundingsponsors:

Associate sponsor:

Co-host:Tower Xchange


The Energy Services Company (ESCO) business model achieves launch velocity

ESCOs operate power systems at >20% of Africa’s unreliable grid and off-grid cell sites, rising >50% by 2021, while a next generation of ESCOs can ease financial pressure on Asian MNOs and towercos

IPT pioneers guaranteed savings model for IHS Nigeria

Ethio Telecom RFP for an initial 1,200 sitesnears conclusion

Energy Vision operates Africa’s first ESCOfor Airtel Gabon AST scales to 10,000 sites, Ardom improves

margins through Indian market turbulence

Millicom Chad partners with Aktivco ESCO opportunities in Pakistan, Philippinesand LatAm

Orange activates 10 year ESCO partnerships in six countries, three more imminent

MTN ESCO PoCs in Sudan and Congo

Yoma Micro Power, Voltalia and Yoma Mandalay power hundreds of cell sites in Myanmar

Safaricom preparing ESCO RFP

IPT provides ESCO for Alfa and touch in Lebanon

Etisalat to launch 1,000 site RFP in Egypt

Orange reports uptime ratio improvementsof 30-40%

MTN has 13,000 potential ESCO sites

DPA powers 1,800 Econet sites, expands into C&I

Vodacom South Africa launches ESCO RFPfor 1,400 sites

ieng contracts over 700 ESCO sites across CAR, Guinea C, Liberia and Afghanistan


What is the ESCO Roundtable?

A by-invitation-only executive retreat for the pioneers of the ESCO business model. Our goals:

< Increase understanding of the ESCO business model, accelerate adoption by MNOs and towercos, with the goal of scaling ESCOs faster

< Optimise the operational delivery performance of ESCOs by sharing direction and best practices with both the leaders of the ESCOs themselves, and with MNOs’ and towercos’ Partner Managers

< Evangelise the ESCO model to prospective investors, thereby attracting more funding at lower cost, with a view to deepening the pool of viable prospective ESCO partners

< Refine stakeholders’ understanding of the scenarios where ESCOs are the best partners, and those where towercos remain critical – exploring how ESCOs and towercos can co-operate

< Showcase proven green energy innovations, with the goal to continue to further reduce reliance on fossil fuels, while at the same time reducing costs

ESCOSIn-house O&M

MNOs TowercosB2B and B2C

EAAS

Community power

Solar lanterns

Retail outlets

Phone charging

Schools

Data centresFibre PoPs

Commercial & industrial off-

takers

Agricultural off-takers

Feed-in-tariff to grid?

Investors

Cleantech

Utilities, O&G

Infrastructurefunds

Private equity

Development

Bank debt

Export credit agencies

Installation& service

Data collection and utilisation

EAAS

EA

AS

EA

AS

EAAS

Technologyagnostic ESCOs

AggregatorESCOs

PowercubesPowercubes

3rdpartyO&M

Energy system componentsBatteriesFuel cells

CapacitorsControllers

InvertersAir

conditioning

GensetsSolarWind

Biomass

Engaging the entire ESCO ecosystem

Source: TowerXchange

IPPs

Micro grids

Solar farms

Wind farms

Small biomass

and hydro plants

What’s in it for you to attend?

Meet prospective partners

Reduce energy opex

Improve uptime

Unlock new capital

Reduce carbon footprint

Attract/deploy investment

Understand ESCO contracts

Refine business models

Achieve ROI in ESCOs

Optimise green power

Operational delivery

Investible counterparts


ESCO Roundtable agendaDay one | Tuesday 24 March

From 8:30 Registration and coffee 9:00 Keynote: Why Orange chose to partner with ESCOs, experiences to

date < Why Orange partnered with ESCOs: < Improve efficiency and quality of service < Accelerate our transition from diesel to green energy < Recognising that fuel logistics are not an MNOs’ core competency < ESCOs as a viable alternative to towercos < Initial successes: increasing site availability by 30-40% < Orange experiences from live ESCOs in six countries (Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Guinea Conakry, Niger and Sierra Leone), managing 3,000 cell sites < Adding several hundred additional sites per year through ESCOs Hervé Suquet, CTIO, Orange

9:30 The current, and fast growing, market for telecom ESCOs < Orange completing their ESCO transition with a further 3,000+ sites with imminent ESCO launches in CAR, Mali, Liberia, Cameroon and eventually Egypt < Proofs of concept in Sudan and Congo for MTN, and the potential for 13,000 ESCO sites in the medium term < Beyond Orange and MTN: ESCO RFPs coming out of Vodacom, Safaricom, Etisalat Misr and Ethio Telecom < Why some towercos do, and other towercos don’t, partner with ESCOs < Lessons learned from the first telecom ESCOs in India, plus emerging ESCO opportunities in Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Philippines < Forecasts for the continuing growth of ESCOs Kieron Osmotherly, CEO, TowerXchange 9:50 Keynote case study: Africa’s fastest growing ESCO; Camusat’s Aktivco < Aktivco’s footprint in Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali < The deployment of a new ESCO, and the timeline to site modernisation < The case for ESCOs to manage on grid as well as off grid / bad grid sites < Adding new sites, and hopefully new customers, as we scale each ESCO operation < “ESCO Plus” – augmenting energy services with responsibility for security plus maintenance of both passive and, potentially, active infrastructure < Our ambitions for growth, both within existing countries (adding new sites, new customers) and entering new countries Thibaut de Rodellec, Deputy CEO, Camusat 10:10 Keynote case study: Beyond proof of concept < The extent to which partnering with telecom ESCOs has been de-risked by IPT PowerTech and other pioneers < IPT PowerTech’s T-ESCO footprint in Guinea Conakry, Lebanon and Nigeria

One of TowerXchange’s 24 successful past communications infrastructure events



< Proof of concept: improvements in availability, reductions in cost, reductions in carbon footprint < Why scale is critical so your ESCO partners having the necessary financial and technical capacity, and boots on the ground to execute < Versioning the ESCO model to suit towercos: the guaranteed savings model < How we do it: people, process and technologies Khaled Habbal, COO, IPT PowerTech 10:30 Morning coffee 10:50 Case study: Five years of experience collaborating with an ESCO in

Gabon < The context of the mobile market in Gabon, challenges we are facing, and our roadmap for the future < What has been achieved in partnership with an ESCO? Improving uptime (99.99%!) and reducing CO2 emissions by two thirds < The importance of forming a genuine partnership to ensure fast, successful implementation and sustainable results < Expansion plans – what’s next for the partnership Alain Kahasha, Managing Director, Airtel Gabon (tbc) 11:10 Case study: Best practices in operational delivery < Experiences from 2.5 years running ESCO sites in Afghanistan < Transforming over 100 sites in the Central African Republic < Plans for Guinea and Liberia Kadri Hakim, Co-CEO, ieng Group 11:30 Panel: Best practices in operational delivery and site modernisation < Where and when does the customer’s responsibility for legacy equipment end? < And when is it reasonable to expect site modernisation to begin? < How to audit sites to create an up to date asset register, visibility of

available space, equipment lifecycles, current and future load < Selecting, standardising (where possible) and correctly deploying hybrid and renewable power systems < Monitoring and optimising performance < Aligning with the opco in terms of responsibilities, people, process and culture Moderator: Dulip Tillekeratne, Senior Manager, CleanTech, M4D,

GSMA Sachin Nijhawan, Vice President, Mahindra Powerol Marwan Khoury, GM – Power Division, IPT PowerTech Kadri Hakim, Co-CEO, ieng Group Ofer Ahiraz, CEO, Energy Vision Damien Kelly, Regional Business Manager, Delmec 12:10 The next wave of prospective ESCO customers < What Etisalat is looking for from their 1,000 site RFP in Egypt < Why declining grid availability has prompted Vodacom to explore partnering with an ESCO at 1,400 sites in South Africa < Why Safaricom is considering partnering with ESCOs for around 20% of their sites < Ethio Telecom’s ESCO RFP: 1,200 sites South and East of Addis Ababa < Where MTN is considering partnering with ESCOs and the progress of pilots Johan Ayres, Managing Executive, Network Programme Management,

Vodacom Francis Murabula, Executive Head, Procurement and Logistics,

Safaricom Senior representative, MTN Senior representative, Etisalat Misr Senior representative, Ethio Telecom (Participantssubjecttoconfirmation) 13:00 Networking lunch



14:00 Fireside chat: How towercos, ESCOs and MNOs can all work together < Power business models 101: power-as-a-service vs power pass through vs ESCO vs guaranteed savings < How and why has IHS created ESCO-like partnerships in Nigeria? < How Helios thinks partnerships with ESCOs could work, and why they haven’t partnered to date < How Tower Vision and the other towercos in India work with ESCOs < How ESCOs and towercos can co-operate to create efficiencies and optimise service provided to MNOs and ultimately subscribers < Under what circumstances would a power-as-a-service towerco partner with an ESCO? Interviewer: Kieron Osmotherly, CEO, TowerXchange Emmanuel Leonard, Director of Business Development, Helios

Towers PLC Moshe Shushan, Director, Tower Vision Gordon Porter, VP Operations, IHS Nigeria(tbc) 14:40 Panel session: How to maximise the investibility of ESCO contracts < Areas investors focus on when evaluating ESCO contracts: < Price and tenor < Cash flow versus capital deployed, and the impact of penalties < Counterparties: recourse to a sizable service company, MNO parent company guarantees < Political risk, currency and payment mechanics < Provisions governing change of control < Flexibility to move equipment between sites in the event of changing load or electrification < What can be done to drive down the cost of capital, as a function of contract, market, technology, counterpart and currency risk? < What it will take for ESCOs to attract capital beyond DFIs and specialist lenders; opening the door to commercial debt and corporate finance

Moderator: Henri Gouzerh, Green Giraffe Pål Helgesen, Investment Director, Norfund Ariana Batori, Investment Officer, IFC Andreas Cremer, Director for Infrastructure in Eastern Europe,

Middle East and Asia, DEG David De Villiers, Vice President Renewables to Telecom Operators,

Engie(tbc) Lucy Heintz, Partner: Energy, Actis (tbc) 15:25 A risk matrix for ESCO contract review < What to look for when reviewing an ESCO contract and associated subcontracts < Is the transfer of risk commensurate with the fees? < Are there variable components to the fee structure to mitigate risks associated with FX or diesel prices? < What is the allocation of risk associated with the capital deployment into new equipment, and the risk of vandalism or theft of that equipment? < Are SLAs achievable, and are penalties fair? < What are the termination clauses, how is the equipment procurement

amortised, and is the cure period realistic? Kerim Uster, Attorney at Law, Norton Rose Fulbright 15:45 Afternoon coffee 16:00 Fireside chat: Navigating ESCOs through market restructuring and

cell site electrification < How AST has continued to scale their ESCO business to almost 10,000 towers, despite the restructuring of the Indian mobile market < How Ardom streamlined processes to improve their bottom line whilst under top line pressure



< Where the pressure to renegotiate ESCO contracts comes from distressed counterparties, and how we found win-win solutions < How we’ve adapted as our portfolio has evolved the majority being off-grid to a majority on grid < Why MNOs and towercos need the ESCO model now more than ever < Adapting our solution to new site typologies, < Expanding beyond telecom to serve C&I customers Interviewer: Kieron Osmotherly, CEO, TowerXchange Kapil Kathpalia, CEO, Applied Solar Technologies Ajit Shankar, Managing Director and CEO, Ardom 16:30 Case study: How Yoma Micro Power has built 250 power plants to

serve towerco anchor tenants and communities in Myanmar < Deploying our own capital into solar hybrid power plants designed to meet the load today, with modularity for scalability < What 99.95% uptime SLAs mean in practice < How we have reduced energy opex by 15-20% whilst drastically improving carbon footprints < Why the telecom, community power and C&I businesses must each stand on their own legs < Challenges to overcome to drive to 2,000 sites: site acquisition < The future of mini-grids, ESCOs and telecom energy in Myanmar Alakesh Chetia, CEO, Yoma Micro Power 16:50 Case study: Beyond towers to power switching centres, Fibre PoPs

and C&I < How DPA evolved from managing 1,800 Econet sites to serving Liquid Telecom PoPs and C&I off-takers – from 5KW to 5MW – in five countries < Why the power requirements for towers, different comms

infrastructure, and C&I off-takers are not as different as one might think – leveraging the same resources < How we adapt to achieve data centre 99.999% uptime SLAs < How agreements are pre-negotiated to evolve as the load increases < Extending to 20MW mining projects – DPA’s joint venture with EDF Norman Moyo, Group CEO, Distributed Power Africa 17:10 Expanding the remit of ESCOs: community power, C&I off takers, and

rural network expansion < Can a renewable energy cell site become a community hub for power and water? < How does extending the ESCO business model from telecom towers to community power affect profitability? < Is installation rooftop solar for C&I off takers a good fit with telecom ESCOs? < How does MNOs and towercos transferring a growing number of cell sites to ESCOs translate into connecting more people to a faster Internet? < How do we catalyse investments in ESCO, site design and network- as-a-service innovations, and how can they combine to unlock rural connectivity? < What are the implications of expanding the remit for your team and for your investors? Moderator: Neil Bartlett, Access Network Program Manager,

Facebook Alakesh Chetia, CEO, Yoma Micro Power Nat-Sy Missamou, Energy Director, Orange Norman Moyo, Group CEO, Distributed Power Africa Kapil Kathpalia, CEO, Applied Solar Technologies 18:00 Close of day one, followed by drinks reception and networking dinner


ESCO Roundtable agendaDay two | Wednesday 25 March

Bi-lateral meetings

TowerXchange will co-ordinate a full day of bi-lateral meetings, such as:< MNOs reconnecting with existing ESCO partners< MNOs and towercos meeting prospective future ESCO partners< ESCOs meeting current and prospective investors< Green energy component suppliers meeting current and prospective ESCO customers< Managed service providers meeting current and prospective ESCO partners< MNOs jointly meeting towercos and ESCOs to co-ordinate activities

Our meeting booking service is free to MNOs, towercos, investors and for our sponsors. For non-sponsoring vendors and ESCOs, meetings are charged at £500 for the first and up to three meetings, £1,000 for four or more meetings. TowerXchange will diarise engagements in blocks of 30 minutes. Private meeting rooms and light refreshments will be provided.

Image courtesy of Energy Vision Branded lounge


Six reasons to sponsor the ESCO Roundtable

1. ESCOs are the new ‘king buyers’ of telecom power systemsESCOs already manage the power systems at >20% of Africa’s cell sites on unreliable grid connections and off-grid, and TowerXchange forecast this to rise to 50% by 2021. The ESCO business model unlocks investment in capitally intensive renewable energy generation, energy storage and control systems, while ESCOs also have growing requirements in access control and data analytics. TowerXchange has partnered with the leading ESCOs to engage their technical decision makers, connecting you with important future clients!

2. Learn how to bid directly for ESCO contracts!If you can’t beat them, join them! ESCOs are aggregators of best-of-breed third party energy equipment, but many ESCOs bundle these into their own containerised hybrid energy solutions, or powercubes. As such, powercube manufacturers may need to bid directly on ESCO RFPs to avoid their addressable market shrinking. Similarly, managed service providers will increasingly see ESCOs bundling O&M into their service proposition, and therefore may likewise need to consider bidding directly for ESCO contracts.

3. Meet the energy equipment decision makers at leading ESCOs, MNOs and towercosWhereas other TowerXchange events leverage a co-located exhibition as our primary networking area, the ESCO Roundtable will leverage meetings. Reserve one of ten discreet branded lounges within our main catering area on day one, while day two will be devoted entirely to a programme of pre-scheduled bi-lateral meetings. Private meeting rooms have been made available in 30 minute slots, and you only pay for the meetings that prospects accept – and meetings are free for sponsors!

4. Capital is criticalAchieving scale in telecom energy is as much about capital as capability. You might be an energy innovator seeking capital to develop and scale your solution; you might be a new ESCO provider seeking capital to execute a contract; or you might be a supplier with a healthy balance sheet and the capability to offer a differentiating vendor finance. In any of these cases, the ESCO Roundtable offers a unique opportunity to secure or deploy capital.

5. Demonstrate your ability to accelerate operational delivery through optimised logisticsOperational delivery remains ESCOs’ number one challenge. Work together to get a clearer sight of immediate and near term requirements, to enable just in time manufacturing, local warehousing, and to develop accelerated import and inland logistics.

6. Differentiate your proven, game-changing green energy innovationsESCOs represent the best opportunity yet to drive adoption of hybrid and renewable energy. With ten year contract terms, many including carbon footprint reduction targets, the ESCO may be the perfect vehicle through which to deploy more capitally intensive hybrid and renewable energy generation and energy storage solutions. Connect with critical new partners at this unique event!

A breakout connecting energy equipment buyers and vendors


Your choice of:

< Sponsorship of lunch, day one

< Sponsorship of drinks reception, day one

< Sponsorship of breakfast, day one

< Tote bags (provided by client)

< Lanyards (provided by client)

< USB sponsor (provided by client)

Your choice of:

< Sponsorship of coffee break

< Stationary sponsor (provided by client)

< Gift drop (provided by client)

< Drink coaster (provided by client)

< Business card holder (provided by client)

< Charger / adaptor (provided by client)

Lead sponsor benefits Associate sponsor benefits

Tower XchangeESCO Roundtable 202024-25 March, Hyatt Regency Casablanca, Morocco

Industry breakdown of anticipated audience

By invitation only: restricted to Director,VP and C-level attendees

MNOs

ESCOs

Energy systems

IPPs

Investors

Towercos

C&I off-takers

Utilities

26.7%

22%17.3%

7.3%

6.7%

3.3% 3.3%

8%

Speaking and panel session opportunities are available to sponsors, subject to editorial approval.*Delegate passes are free to qualifying fulltime employees of MNOs and towercos. 33% discount for fulltime employees of investors.

Benefits Delegate pass* Branded lounge Associate sponsor Lead sponsor

Access to ESCO Roundtable 1 pass 1 pass 2 passes 4 passes

Daytime catering

Access to breakout sessions

Access to day two meetings £500-£1,000 extra £500-£1,000 extra

Private branded lounge area

Video on TowerXchange TV

Logo on backdrop, signage, fliers and invitations

Your choice of associate sponsor benefit

Your choice of Lead sponsor benefit


Introducing TowerXchange

Over the last eight years, TowerXchange has built an unrivalled reputation as the leading research firm and community host in the world of telecom towers and power.

TowerXchange are recognised for the quality of our research, for insightful agendas, and for delivering an outstanding customer experience. We pride ourselves in our ability to facilitate personal connections between decision makers within this small but influential ecosystem.

TowerXchange has published over 4 million words of research, built relationships with over 40,000 decision makers, and we have hosted 24 large scale events. TowerXchange Meetups are now proven, must-attend events for decision makers on five continents.

We have been tracking the emergence of ESCOs for several years, culminating in the publication of the TowerXchange ESCO market report 2018, and the inauguration of this dedicated new event designed to accelerate the emergence of ESCOs as a critical new category of stakeholders in communications infrastructure.

Kieron Osmotherly, CEO, TowerXchange Request a copy of our ESCO research

mailto:kosmotherly%40towerxchange.com?subject=Request%20for%20TowerXchange%20ESCO%20research


Keywords: Aktivco, Asset Register, Bankability, Batteries, Best of TowerXchange, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Dimensioning, ESCOs, Egypt, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Ethio Telecom, Ethiopia, Guinea Conakry, Hybrid Power, IPT PowerTech, Liberia, Logistics, MNOs, MTN, Mali, Niger, Off-Grid, On-Grid, Operational Excellence, Opex Reduction, Orange, Procurement, ROI, Renewables, SSA, Safaricom, Site Surveys, Site Visits, Skilled Workforces, Solar, Sudan, Unreliable Grid, Uptime, Vodacom

ESCOs emerging as critical newbuyers of telecom energy equipmentMTN, Ethio Telecom and Vodacom poised to follow Orange in partnering with ESCOs to drive operational efficiency and green energy

At the TowerXchange Meetup Africa 2019, in the Energy working group and ESCO round table, it was clear that ESCOs were emerging as critical stakeholders in telecom energy in SSA. Why? In Africa’s unforgiving operating environment, the gensets and batteries on which most cell sites rely do not last long. Ageing power systems result in increased instances of downtime. Diesel gensets often run 24/7, making fuel logistics critical to continuity of service, yet diesel refuelling is not the core competency of any MNO. Even though the cost of green energy has never been lower, only a single digit percentage of Africa’s cell sites run on green energy. Africa’s MNOs are among the largest power generators on the continent – they don’t want to be! All these factors are driving a growing number of Africa’s MNOs to partner with ESCOs. Towercos have made tremendous progress in improving uptime and efficiency in African telecoms. But the towerco business model breaks down in rural, single tenant environments. Towercos cannot achieve the necessary scale in smaller countries, especially where the operating environment in those countries is challenging. Finally, the towerco business model is not calibrated to emphasise green energy – most hybridisation entails renewing and upgrading battery banks, rather than progressing to full hybrid renewables. ESCOs hold the key to unlocking the capital investment in renewable energy solutions that can address the MNOs’ challenges, and fill a gap in the market left by towercos.

Read this article to learn:< Orange’s successes as ESCO pioneers in six, soon nine, African countries< MTN’s appetite for ESCO partnerships< The requirements of Africa’s two largest ESCOs: Aktivco and IPT PowerTech< The answers to ten frequently asked questions about ESCOs

By the end of 2020, Orange will be working with ESCOs in nine Sub-Saharan African countries – outside of their partnerships with towercos, almost all Orange’s power systems in Africa will be operated by ESCOs. MTN plans to transition the majority of their 13,000 retained towers in bad grid markets to ESCOs. Safaricom are exploring an ESCO in Kenya, Ethio Telecom has issued a substantial ESCO RFP in Ethiopia, and Vodacom is exploring ESCOs in DRC and South Africa. ESCOs will operate the power systems at more than half of Africa’s off-grid cell sites, or cell sites on unreliable grid connections, by the end of 2021.

By Kieron Osmotherly, CEO, TowerXchange


Orange pioneers the ESCO model Orange has activated ten year ESCO contracts in six countries (DRC, Niger, Guinea Conakry, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Burkina Faso), with live RFPs for ESCOs in three more countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic and Mali). Since partnering with ESCOs, Orange reports network uptime ratio improvements of 30-40% in Burkina Faso and Niger. Even when sites go down, mean time to repair (MTTR) has been significantly improved. “It’s a partnership, not a supplier relationship,” explained Orange Deputy CTIO Jocelyn Karakula at the ESCO round table at the 7th Annual TowerXchange Meetup Africa. “We’re structuring deals such that ESCOs should be profitable from day one,” added Karakula, before concluding: “at this relatively early stage, our ESCO partnerships have been a success from an economics perspective, in some cases surpassing what was expected in the business plan.” MTN has 13,000 potential ESCO sites MTN retains around 40,000 towers outside their partnerships with towercos. The power systems at around 13,000 MTN sites could be handed over to ESCOs in the medium term. At the TowerXchange Meetup Africa 2019 Energy Working Group, MTN revealed that they have issued a non-binding proof

of concept (PoC) for an ESCO to assume an initial 100 of their 2,000 sites in Sudan. Diesel prices have recently trebled in Sudan, driving up opex in a market where 90-95% of cell sites run on diesel gensets 24/7. Under the Sudanese ESCO PoC, MTN is not proposing to sell their existing power assets, but is looking for a partner to replace those assets with renewable energy solutions. MTN are open to solar, wind, LPG – any alternative to diesel. Another ESCO PoC is in the pipeline for MTN Congo Brazzaville, with an RFP expected in Q120. MTN sees ESCO partnerships as a logical next step for their smaller opcos, including the aforementioned Sudan and Congo Brazzaville, plus Liberia, Guinea, South Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan. MTN is less keen to partner with ESCOs where they already have a towerco partner:

in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana and Uganda. Sites in MTN’s relatively good grid markets of Iran (~15,000 sites) and South Africa (~12,000 sites) are also unlikely to be handed over to ESCOs. MTN explained that their principle energy challenge in South Africa was not so much one of grid availability, which remained high, but more one of battery theft, which affected ~3,000 sites per year. MTN has not deployed much lithium-ion yet, and where it has, has not seen much dampening of theft. MTN currently sources most of their hybrid energy solutions from the big four OEMs: Huawei, ZTE, Nokia and Ericsson. Asked about their appetite for green energy going forward, MTN said they were acutely aware of their carbon emission reduction targets and taxes, and suggested they foresee using ESCOs as the primary vehicle to extend their rollout of green energy solutions.

The cherry on the cake: multi-tenant ESCO sites MNOs, Orange in particular, would like to see the ESCOs’ perimeter expanded to include maintenance of both passive and active equipment, site security and, ultimately, co-location of sites to multiple tenants, enabling the mutualisation of power systems and a full range of services to multiple MNOs. We are already seeing ESCOs building new sites for MNOs, deploying networks deeper into rural areas and accelerating digital inclusion. Another goal is for every operator in a given country to partner with an ESCO. Imagine the efficiencies ESCOs could enable if they were able to consolidate the primary or backup power systems on every site in a country, and share those resources with every MNO! We could see dramatic reductions in both capex and opex, as site visits would be dramatically reduced. And the impact in terms of carbon emissions reduction could be tremendous!


The requirements of Africa’s two largest ESCOs: Aktivco Aktivco is Camusat’s ESCO play, managing 2,000 sites in Chad, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Niger. Aktivco expect to build 250-280 additional sites per year across these countries. They anticipate closing two more ESCO contracts in new countries imminently, adding a further 1,000 sites. Around 40% of Aktivco’s sites are on grid, albeit those grid connections are of variable quality. For example, grid uptime is ~98% in Cote d’Ivoire, but still suffers short outages; the grid is also quite reliable in Burkina Faso, but connections are expensive; while in Chad, grid availability is closer to 60%, and there is an energy crisis in Niger.

Aktivco deploys their own powercube, ePower, but they aggregate best-of-breed components.

New technologies must be certified by Aktivco, which undertakes proof of concept tests in Romania. The requirements of Africa’s two largest ESCOs: IPT PowerTech IPT PowerTech is also an ESCO, operating 10,000 sites in SSA. Half are in Nigeria, where they operate the “guaranteed savings model” under which their client, IHS Towers, deploys the capital, but IPT takes the risk (and reward) from diesel savings. IPT operates a conventional ESCO model for Alfa and touch, the two MNOs in Lebanon, representing around 30% of IPT’s ESCO sites. The balance of IPT’s ESCO sites are in Guinea in a partnership with Orange. IPT is adding around 500 sites per year. Capacity shortages mean even in Lagos, the grid is online for only around five hours per day, so

all of IPT’s Nigerian sites are effectively off-grid. IPT is the largest of what was originally dubbed IHS’s “Big Five” partners, of which Biswal and M-P Infrastructure also remain active. Around 60% of IHS Nigeria’s sites have been hybridised, including the majority of those operated by IPT, although around 6,000 IHS Nigeria sites still run primarily on diesel. IPT has some sites on good grid connections outside Nigeria. IPT are open to exploring innovative energy solutions, which they test in their facilities in Lebanon. Ten frequently asked questions about ESCOs ESCOs already own or operate the power systems on more than 25% of SSA’s cell sites on unreliable grid connections or off-grid, and TowerXchange foresee that proportion approaching 50% in the next two years. As such, it is important to understand a few fundamentals about the ESCOs. What kind of energy equipment do ESCOs buy? While there are a couple of ‘technology agnostic’ ESCOs, Africa’s largest ESCOs deploy their own hybrid energy solutions. As such, manufacturers of containerised, plug and play hybrid energy systems will find it difficult to sell to ESCOs – so they may need to compete to win ESCO contracts directly. However, most ESCOs are aggregators of third party components, of which they ESCOs emerging as the fastest growing, and soon the largest, category of buyers in SSA.

Orange’s Jocelyn Karakula leads the ESCO round table


ESCOs standardise where possible, and are inclined to use proven solutions with which their field maintenance teams are familiar. Some ESCO partnerships include explicit targets to increase utilisation of renewables: “our green energy ratio was 3% - modernisation driven by ESCOs should drive this over 50%,” said one MNO. Most ESCOs continue to primarily use lead-acid batteries – “we’re open to lithium-ion,” said one ESCO “but not convinced”.

All equipment must integrate with the ESCO’s monitoring and management platform. Most ESCOs are at a relatively early stage in their evolution, such that vendor financing can be attractive to them, although operational delivery and the ability to achieve SLAs will always be their greatest priorities.

ESCOs consider total cost of ownership (TCO), not just the capital cost of solutions, and with ten year contracts, ESCOs’ TCO horizon may be longer than an MNO’s or even a towerco’s. How long does it take an ESCO to modernise its sites? It can take up to a year to negotiate the SLAs and KPIs, and to finalise an ESCO contract, but the process can be expedited when subsequent contracts are iterations of an initial agreement. Even when a contract is signed, ESCOs don’t start upgrading sites right away – they start with a comprehensive audit of sites to determine the ideal solutions. While ESCOs typically modernise the energy equipment at 2-4% of their portfolio per month, one their biggest challenges is the lag between the order and installation of equipment, which typically takes two to three months.

ESCOs aim to upgrade the energy equipment at the majority of their sites, typically over a 24 month period. Most ESCOs are prepared to run down any remaining lifecycle of legacy power systems before modernising sites. What savings are MNOs looking for when working with ESCOs? And how profitable are ESCOs? For Orange, targeted savings are based on a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis, against a baseline based on the cost of passive infrastructure, energy opex and security.

“As many of the MNO’s costs are transferred to the ESCO, and Camusat was already providing managed services for many of these sites, we already know how much fuel goes into the existing sites, so we know inherited fuel and security costs,” said Orange’s partner ESCO Aktivco. “This is why the strongest ESCOs are already operational companies – we have a good understanding of the cost of a maintenance site visit. Sometimes we also absorb the MNO’s operational team, so we need to know the overhead costs too. We prefer the MNO to be as transparent as possible about their existing costs, otherwise we’d have to inflate our quote to be safe.” Of course ESCOs deploy substantial capex into site modernisation, the effect of which on opex is not always clear at the outset of the agreement. So it may be a couple of years before the full TCO can be compared before and after the portfolio has been fully modernised. Only then will we be able to make a final judgement about how profitable ESOs are.

Towercos’ appetite to partner with ESCOs Many emerging market towercos are rightly proud of their achievements in developing and providing power-as-a-service. Many of those towercos have invested substantial financial and human capital to develop the operational excellence necessary to achieve and surpass challenging uptime SLAs. “I like spending capex to reduce opex,” summarised the CEO of one African towerco. It will be a challenge to convince towercos with mature, accomplished energy services teams to relinquish that responsibility to ESCOs. But towercos entering a virgin market, such as Ethiopia, or towercos making their first forays into managed power services, would be well advised to seriously consider partnering with ESCOs


Orange proudly proclaim that their ESCO projects enable their partners to be profitable from year one, a suggestion not disputed by their biggest partners. With the ESCO’s fees fixed from the outset of the contract, achieving profitability is contingent upon reducing energy opex, which first means reducing diesel consumption. This in turn is dependent on operational performance and site modernisation. So just because an ESCO can be profitable in year one, doesn’t mean to say it will be. Some aspiring ESCOs have questioned whether that near term profitability is achievable without the ESCO bundling passive and active maintenance, together with site security. What is clear is that all stakeholders agree that the ESCO business model is significantly enhanced when additional MNOs from the same country partner with the same ESCO. How do MNOs evaluate respondents to an ESCO RFP – is price the primary factor? Of course price is a significant factor, but the financial strength of the ESCO company is critical – it is important for the ESCO to demonstrate their capability in the long term. There is also a growing feeling that it would be healthy to have more than the two to three ESCOs that are currently securing the majority of contracts in Africa, to mitigate counterparty risk. “Some MNOs are less focused on site modernisation, they just have price and performance targets,” said one ESCO. “Other MNOs want to understand how you will reach those performance targets, for

example in terms of the number of sites modernised per month, and the impact on their green energy ratio.” How are ESCOs paid, in what currency, and is there indexation? While there are variants on the model, most ESCOs agree a fixed fee per site per month. There are typically a number of different rates for different site typologies. One ESCO revealed that they were paid in three parts:< The fee related to energy is paid in whatever currency they buy the fuel in<The O&M fee is typically paid in local currency< Fees related to capex are typically paid in Euros or U.S. dollars so as to minimise FX risk Indexation tends to be calibrated according to the energy mix. Where energy primarily comes from the grid, indexation is primarily linked to CPI. Where energy primarily comes from diesel, indexation is primarily linked to the price of diesel. How do ESCO agreements accommodate changes in power load, as next generation networks are rolled out or as co-locations are added? Orange explained that they undertake an audit of every site prior to opening an ESCO RFP, assessing the current and future configuration – so there’s visibility of site configuration changes anticipated, for example with 4G overlays increasing power requirements. Orange’s terms are described as

“flexible enough to accommodate change over the ten year term of the ESCO contract.” One of Orange’s partner ESCOs added “We are aligned to our MNO partners’ changing power load. We know that if a site starts with a 3kW load, it probably won’t stay at 3kW over the ten year term of the contract. The load, the site typology, even the location of the site may change. Flexibility is key, but yes our pricing changes based on load and as the site typology changes over the years.” Do ESCOs acquire the existing power systems at cell sites when they assume control? Some ESCO contracts transfer ownership of legacy power assets from MNO to ESCO, but more often, the ESCO receives an indefinite right of use for free. In either case, the ESCO will deploy its own capex to modernise, after which the ESCO will own the power equipment. What happens at the end of the ESCO contract? In the unlikely event that an ESCO contract is not extended, the MNO typically has a reversibility clause giving them the right to buy the power equipment. What is the addressable market for ESCOs? There are a range of opinions on this matter, but most commentators agree that cell sites in countries with a significant number of sites off-grid on unreliable electricity grid connections, where grid


is usable on average for less than 16 hours per day, are the most obvious targets. Where emerging market towercos remain reluctant to partner with ESCOs, towerco sites might be medium term rather than near term targets for ESCOs. ESCOs can still partner with MNOs alongside a towerco, as exemplified by Orange Cote d’Ivoire, which is working with both IHS Towers and Aktivco. We have already seen ESCOs take over 100% of the sites for MNOs in countries without towercos present – a fact which illustrates that the addressable market for ESCOs includes on-grid as well as bad grid and off-grid sites. The near term pipeline of ESCO opportunities consists of ~3,000 Orange sites in Mali, Cameroon,

the Central African Republic and Egypt, the opportunity in the latter country being subject to resolution of issues related to diesel subsidies. Orange has identified a total of 15,000 sites, in 13 countries, which could be transferred to ESCOs. A substantial ESCO RFP is in progress from Ethio Telecom, while another large ESCO opportunity is imminent in Kenya with Safaricom. MTN has 13,000 cell sites in bad grid markets, and is keen to explore ESCO partnerships – MTN has an ESCO proof of concept live in Sudan and another imminent in Congo Brazzavilla. Vodacom has long been considering partnering with an ESCO in DRC and, potentially, in South Africa. Once an ESCO is active in a country, convincing the other MNOs to partner with the same ESCOs would

unlock significant economies of scale, so this is also a priority. The “TowerXchange ESCO Market Report 2018” identified a total addressable market for ESCOs of 125,280 cell sites in SSA and MENA, of which around 20,000 (16%) are already contracted. How will the role of the ESCO expand in the future? The scope of ESCOs is expanding all the time, from power-as-a-service to full passive and active infrastructure maintenance and security. ESCOs are already starting to expand beyond cell sites to manage the power systems at data centres, technical sites and MNOs’ retail outlets. ESCOs are also starting to explore community power and, potentially in the future, co-location sales and the mutualisation of power systems to all operators in a market. We are already seeing ESCOs build several hundred new sites per year. Special thanks to Jocelyn Karakula, Deputy CTIO of Orange, for moderating the ESCO round table, and to the energy equipment buyers who attended this year’s energy working group, including Aktivco, IPT PowerTech and MTN. TowerXchange are partnering with Orange to host an “ESCO Roundtable” for the pioneers of this transformational model. Checkout www.towerxchange.com/meetups for more information

The energy working group at the TowerXchange Meetup Africa

https://www.towerxchange.com/meetups/

24-25 march, hyatt regency casablanca, morocco esco … · 1 | esco roundtable 2020, 24-25 march,...

Documents