What problem does Cence solve for power distribution to telecom equipment?

1. Safety

Problem: Telecom technicians need to be able to work safely, so only low-voltages are carried from base stations to telecom antennas

Telecom technicians are not electricians, so they aren’t qualified to work with high-voltage electrical systems. As a work around, high-voltage AC power is delivered to telecom base stations and is converted to low-voltage DC power through a telecom rectifier, which is then carried from the base of the telecom tower to the top (where the antenna is located). Cables carrying lower voltages need to be thicker than those carrying higher voltages, making them heavier.

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Solution: fault-managed power systems can provide high voltages of DC power that’s considered safe from fire and electric shock.

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2. Line Losses and Energy Efficiency

Problem: It’s problematic for cables to carry low-voltages for a few reasons: these cables are thicker, require more copper, and low-voltage power suffers from more line losses/voltage drop than high-voltages.

Low-voltage cables are thick and require a lot of copper. To explain further, according to the formula for power, lower voltages result in higher currents to maintain the same power level. When more current needs to move through cables, additional space is required within them so the current can move through them without as much resistance. If cables carrying low voltages were too thin, more resistive line losses would occur, wasting more energy than necessary. The need for low voltage cables from base stations to antennas thus results in higher capital costs (due to the thicker, heavier cables). Additionally, even if thick cables are used, cables carrying low voltages still suffer from more line losses than cables carrying higher voltages, which increases the operating costs associated with telecom infrastructure.

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Solution: fault-managed power systems can provide high voltages of DC power that’s considered safe from fire and electric shock. Cables distributing higher voltages are thinner than those carrying lower voltages, so they are also lighter, causing less of a strain on telecom towers. Because they are fault-managed, they also require less copper, and are considered safe from fire and shock.  

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With the Cence fault-managed power system, you can decrease the cost of 5G DAS, and other telecom projects with high-voltage DC telecom rectifiers. Higher voltages reduce cable size and voltage drop, and DC coupled systems additionally improve battery backup performance.