Southeast Asia · Telecom Backup Power · 2025
Replacing Diesel Gensets with LiFePO4 at Telecom Base Stations
A Philippine telecom tower operator replaced diesel gensets with EcoDyny LiFePO4 backup systems at base stations, prioritising typhoon-prone and off-grid sites. The programme cut fuel logistics costs and improved site availability during extended grid failures.
PhilippinesCountry
Southeast AsiaRegion
Telecom Backup PowerSector
2025Commissioned
Client profile
Philippines · Telecom Backup Power
A national telecom tower operator in the Philippines responsible for backup power at more than 2,000 macro base station sites, many in areas with unreliable grid supply.
Case study
The challenge
The operator's base stations relied on diesel gensets for backup, and the cost structure was dominated by logistics rather than fuel itself. Many sites are on islands or in mountainous areas where refuelling requires contracted transport, and theft of fuel and generator parts was a recurring loss. Gensets also needed periodic running and maintenance, and in typhoon season access could be cut for days at a time. During extended grid failures, sites with depleted fuel dropped off air, affecting coverage for whole municipalities. The operator had begun testing lithium backup but found that many products were not designed for outdoor telecom cabinets: enclosures were not rated for humidity and salt air, BMS communication did not integrate with existing site controllers, and there was no remote visibility of battery state. The operator needed a backup platform it could monitor centrally across thousands of sites, that would survive coastal conditions, and that reduced the need to send personnel to site.
Case study
Our solution
EcoDyny supplied the ED-TB-4820 telecom backup module, a 48 V / 100 Ah LiFePO4 unit in a rack-mount format that fits standard base station cabinets, with an IP55-rated variant for coastal sites. The BMS exposes SNMP and RS485 interfaces, so battery state, alarm conditions and remaining runtime report into the operator's existing network management system, avoiding a separate monitoring platform. Discharge behaviour is tuned for telecom duty: the pack holds voltage through the long low-current discharge typical of a lightly loaded site, and the BMS reports remaining backup hours rather than only state of charge, which is what the operations centre needs for dispatch decisions. The units accept both rectifier and solar charging, supporting hybrid sites. The rollout prioritised typhoon-path and off-grid locations, with generator removal where backup duration requirements were met. EcoDyny provided integration documentation and on-site commissioning support for the first 200 sites, then transferred to the operator's own field teams.
Case study
Results
The operator converted 640 sites in the first phase, removing 410 gensets and cutting monthly diesel logistics spend by 47%. Site availability during grid failures longer than four hours improved from 81% to 97.3% across converted sites, with the largest gains at coastal and island locations where refuelling access had been the binding constraint. Fuel theft losses at converted sites were eliminated, and scheduled generator maintenance visits dropped by 88%. The BMS-to-NMS integration allowed the operations centre to identify 34 degrading units remotely before they failed, avoiding truck rolls and unplanned outages. Average backup duration at converted sites reached 8.5 hours at typical load, exceeding the operator's four-hour design requirement with margin.
Metrics
Measured outcomes
640Sites converted in phase one
-47%Monthly diesel logistics spend
97.3%Site availability in long outages
The change we measured first was not fuel cost, it was not sending a truck to an island in a storm. The network now tells us which sites are degrading before we lose them.
— Network Operations Director, Manila
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