ANSI SCTE 238-2017 pdf free download – Operational Practice for Measuring and Baselining Power Consumption in Outside Plant Equipment and Power Supplies.
For the latter, while PON networks are more energy efficient [1], unfortunately when they are deployed alongside existing HFC networks, the total power consumed by the OSP still goes up overall.And due tolimited fiber counts in some areas, PON architectures that include active devices in the OSP in order to extend the reach of the technology are used, which also increases the energy consumption of the OSP.ANSISCTE 212 2015[2] provides an audit framework for establishment of an energy baseline for theoutside plant. Quoting from this document:
“For metered power supplies, the utility billing information should provide power supply inputpower (kWh and days in bill).
Legacy status monitoring devices can be used to capture output voltage and output current. Beaware, status monitoring data is not accurate enough across the board to serve as more than anindicator for power supply output. Thus, for unmetered power supplies with legacy transponders,there is no utility grade measurement available. In systems with a mixed population (metered andunmetered), the metered accounts can be used to statistically estimate unmetered usage. This willprovide an indication if the unmetered power supply population as a whole is billed correctly andcan be used as a decision point for follow up work.
Metered power supplies are generally billed as stand-alone accounts, i.e. one bill per powersupply. Unmetered power supplies are often billed on summary bills (many sub accounts underone primary account number). Many unmetered accounts are legacy accounts, often carriedacross multiple acquisitions without account maintenance. In many cases, utility addresses aremissing completely. In these cases, in depth negotiations with the utility are required to resolvebilling issues.
Overbillings are normally related to unmetered power supplies. Not only is the number ofsupplics billed often inflated, but kWh numbers charged are in excess of actual usage. In somecases, utilities charge based on nameplate rating of the unmetered power supplies.”
As stated previously, there is a need to gather accurate data on actual power consumption in the cases where power supplies are unmetered, or where older status monitoring systems are in place that may notbe accurate enough.Also, the data from the above approach is coarse in that it does not express the actualpower consumption vs. architecture in the network, nor how power consumption varies from element toelement in the network and how the elements in the above list of new OSP technologies will specificallyaffect power consumption and efficiency. In particular, the data from the ANSISCTE 212 20i5 [2]
approach cannot be used to determine power efficiency of the power supplies, and therefore determine ifthere is a significant opportunity in the cable industry to improve power efficiency in outside plant powersupplies.
Ultimately cable operators are looking for ways to reduce costs, so it is also recommended to capture theactual billed cost (in dollars, euros, etc.) from both the metered supplies as well as the billed amount based on estimates to use along with the billed kWh.Currently, power supply accounts generally are notfitted with a demand meter to capture peak power demand although this may change in the future.
Capture of actual billed costs allows tracking of demand increases due to higher temperatures and theassociated higher I’R losses, higher tariff rates, or peak demand charges. Since most consumption in theoSP is relatively stable, cost tracking would also permit detection of unusual variations across a portfolioof sites that might be a useful predictor of equipment malfunction in certain situations. Utility bill aggregators are available to perform the tracking.ANSI SCTE 238 pdf download.