Telefonica highlights World Energy Efficiency Day
Spanish telecoms operator Telefonica has detailed some of the moves it has taken to reduce power consumption across its fixed and wireless networks.
Telefonica says it has reduced energy consumption by 8.6% since 2015, while traffic has increased 8.6 times. Through 1,574 projects, Telefónica has generated recurring savings of more than €2.2 billion, saving more than 13,800 GWh of energy since 2010.
Telefónica says it has implemented a series of projects under its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) programme to optimize energy consumption and reduce the environmental footprint.
This is mainly achieved by modernizing the network, replacing copper with fibre optics, which is 85% more efficient, and deploying 5G, which is up to 90% more efficient than 4G. Also through migration to cloud, virtualisation, up to 27% more efficient than legacy environments, implementation of Power Saving Features (PSF) and AI/ML platforms, all with the aim of optimizing energy consumption by up to 40% while maintaining quality.
Telefónica also achieves efficiencies through the renovation of power plants and air conditioning equipment. Air conditioning, which plays a key role, can be carried out with outside air (free cooling), by immersion or by switching off certain air conditioning equipment. It can also be accomplished by compacting technical rooms, by renovating obsolete equipment or by confining cold aisles and increasing the temperature of rooms and associated water circuits. Because of these measures, Germany, for example, has defined a consolidation plan that envisages fewer but better infrastructures with a 15% reduction in energy consumption.
Legacy switch-off also plays a key role in terms of energy efficiency because it minimizes the coexistence of networks, both in the mobile and fixed networks. In Spain, and in the context of the evolution of copper infrastructure towards ultra broadband solutions, a migration that will culminate from 2024, coinciding with the company’s Centenary, 1,914 copper retail exchanges were switched off in 2023, a total of 4,150 since 2014. Latin America also made progress in switching off the 2G network, especially Uruguay, which has already reached 100%, representing a 17% decrease in consumption.
By the end of 2023, 100% of Telefónica’s electricity consumption at its own facilities in Spain, Germany, Brazil, Peru, and Chile comes from renewable sources. Globally, the figure is 84%.
Telefónica is also working on self-generation of electricity. It has 484 renewable installations, including solar panel solutions, both in fixed network buildings and in mobile network base stations. It has 11 self-generation projects in Ecuador, where annual production is estimated at 34,000 kWh. At group level, Telefónica says it generates around 6 GWh of electricity to boost energy efficiency.
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