Folami Adeleke, Head of Operations, Pan African Towers

The Head of Operations at Pan African Towers, Folami Adeleke has stated that Pan African Towers will power more than 50% of its sites with renewable energy sources by the end of Q4 2021. Adeleke stated this in a panel discussion on “The global growth of the ESCO sector” in the 2021 TowerXchange Meetup Africa which held today Tuesday October 5, 2021 virtually.

Adeleke first introduced Pan African Towers as a telecom infrastructure company that provides services to Mobile Nework Operators (MNOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which include: Colocation, Build-to-suit, Managed Services, DAS Solutions, Buy-Lease-Back, amongst other services. He stated that Pan African Towers was working in close partnerships with some Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) such as Watt Renewables, a Canadian ESCO firm; Day Star and Prime Engineering ESCOs to power its sites using alternative renewable energy sources.

Adeleke mentioned that all PAT sites in 2017 were 100% reliant on Diesel Generators and at the time they were sceptical about exploring the services of ESCOs. However, they were approached by an ESCO and the company gave some sites a try-out and immediately saw the improved services and capacity those sites provided. He added that the company decided to put a plan in motion to convert all its sites to renewable energy sources.

In his words “we had converted 50 sites so far as at 2020 but was limited by the impact of COVID. However, we are converting 150 sites in 2021 to renewable energy sources which will bring the total number of sites to about 200 sites by the end of Q4 2021 which is more than 50% of our sites by the end of 2021”. The PAT Head of Operations further explained that the decision to convert all sites to renewable energy sources was “to reduce our dependence on Diesel, be very competitive in the market with a unique advantage as well as reduce our carbon footprint in the environment”.

Adeleke highlighted the fact that there is scarcity of energy generation and electricity in Nigeria, and therefore as the load or capacity grows on sites, “we do not expect to run generators 24/7, hence the decision to invest in alternative energy sources that will maximise the capacity of our sites to provide high quality services to our customers” he said.

Adeleke further mentioned that Pan African Towers engages with ESCOs to ensure the best state-of-the-art technology in renewable energy sources are deployed to power PAT’s sites. The Operations Expert, further intimated that ESCOs use new solutions like IPMS which combines the output of generators, battery systems and other solutions to meet our customers’ specifications and needs as well as reduce carbon emissions in the environment.

He went further to add that ESCOs deploy variable speed generators to meet the load of power, thereby elongating the life span of the equipment on sites. Adeleke said that Pan African Towers engages ESCOs to meet the needs and specifications of its customers and that the company will continue to put the needs of its customers’ ahead while serving them.

The TowerXchange Meetup Africa global conference which is still ongoing, will continue with the appearance of the Chief Commercial Officer of Pan African Towers, Karo Akaba who will be speaking tomorrow October 6, 2021 at 9:00AM on how Nigeria can become a leading 5G African Market. The company will also be having a Questions & Answers session on Thursday October 7, 2021 at 10:00AM Nigerian time to take questions from stakeholders about its business operations in Nigeria.