Over 100 high-profile delegates representing the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in the region attended the ICT Energy Efficiency Summit 2017 held recently in Dubai, UAE.

The event, organised by Huawei, highlighted the latest innovations that drastically reduce energy consumption.
 
The summit saw participation from local operators Etisalat and du, as well as regional players including STC and Vodafone besides policy makers, regional authorities and industry analysts, said the organisers.
 
The key topics discussed included: the road to smart ICT facilities, reducing operating expenditure (Opex), solar energy applications in the ICT industry and ways to a green, connected world, it added.
 
As Huawei Network Energy Research, 40 per cent of telecom network energy is used inefficiently, while 57 per cent of network interruption is related to infrastructure problems. In data centre, energy cost contributes 60 per cent to its total cost of ownership in 15 years.

Ponemon Institute’s statistics show that an interruption could cause losses of $740,000 annually to a data centre. In addition, DC owners have to invest massive manpower into the three-shift O&M (operations and maintenance), it added.
 
Tao Hongming, president of telecoms energy Huawei Technologies, said: “Energy and maintenance are two big players in Opex of telecom operators and data centres, while solar energy remains a largely untapped source of energy for both.”

“We are talking about how ICT will transform other sectors in the fourth industrial revolution, or ‘digital transformation’, however, the ICT industry still utilises ‘dumb’ equipment that inefficiently consumes massive amount of energy,” he said.
   
The event also highlighted solutions to increasing use of solar energy, especially in remote areas, increasing use of li-ion batteries and reducing overall O&M with smart network components, it stated.-TradeArabia News Service