SCTE: EDGE FACILITIES AND HFC NETWORK REPRESENT GREATEST OPPORTUNITY FOR ENERGY COST AVOIDANCE BY CABLE SYSTEM OPERATORS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Joe Madagan, SCTE Editor, Marketing & Communications, jmadagan@scte.org
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SCTE: EDGE FACILITIES AND HFC NETWORK REPRESENT GREATEST OPPORTUNITY FOR ENERGY COST AVOIDANCE BY CABLE SYSTEM OPERATORS
Vendor Collaboration, Innovation Needed to Drive Efficiency

FEB. 3, 2015 (Herndon, VA)—The greatest opportunity for energy cost avoidance in cable system networks is in the HFC plant from the headend or hub to the home, according to a report today at an SCTE Energy 2020 session here.

Between 73% and 83% of cable’s overall energy consumption is by hubs and headends, as well as the access network power supplies powering the active equipment on the HFC network, according to detailed SCTE analysis of energy usage of a cross section of major operators.  The report was presented to more than 80 operator and vendor representatives.

"While devices in the edge facilities and in the network individually are not the greatest consumers of power in our networks, the sheer number of those devices makes those areas high priorities for the reduction of consumption and cost on a per-unit basis," said Daniel Howard, senior vice president and CTO of SCTE.

According to data usage projections from Cisco Systems Inc. and energy cost estimates from the United States Department of Energy, annual cable energy costs could rise from more than $1 billion currently to as much as $4 billion per year by 2020.  According to Howard, the findings announced yesterday represent a two-pronged cost-avoidance opportunity for operators and vendors: the replacement of existing plant and headend gear with more efficient equipment as part of normal operational maintenance, as well as the design and deployment of more efficient equipment as operators migrate to CCAP, Remote PHY, PON and other architectures. 

"Over the next five years, we’re committed to reducing power consumption and energy costs on a unit basis by 20% or more, to reducing grid dependency by 10% and to optimizing technical facilities and data center footprints by 20%," Howard said.  "This is a massive effort that will require two contributions by our vendors: collaboration on the standards that will make this possible, and design and manufacture of equipment that will meet operators’ energy management specifications."

In the report, SCTE noted that market data centers and national distribution centers represent 3-7% of the industry’s power usage, despite the presence of servers, video processing equipment, routers and other higher-consumption equipment. Backbone and co-location sites (1-2%) and administrative offices (10-21%) represent the remainder. A graphical representation of the categories and the percentages of power consumed is available at http://www.scte.org/energy2020/#energypyramid.

Energy 2020, co-chaired by Comcast Cable’s John Schanz and Liberty Global’s Balan Nair, brings together the collective vision and technology expertise of cable operators and the vendor community to achieve maximum customer uptime and enablement of cable network capacity growth via successful organization, customer and environmental energy solutions.  The program is intended to create alignment on standards and operational practices, to drive design and implementation of equipment, and to create SCTE training resources that will enable workforce teams to optimize technology for maximum efficiency. Energy 2020’s initial areas of focus include: Energy Metrics; Energy Baselines; Access Network Efficiency; Alternate Energy; Energy in Operations; Facility Classification; Energy Efficiency in Facilities; Density and Consolidation; Fleet Optimization; and Facility Climate Technology Optimization. SCTE Energy 2020 resources will be available worldwide through SCTE’s global brand, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE).

More information on Energy 2020 and the SCTE Energy Management Program is available at http://www.scte.org/energy or by emailing energy@scte.org.

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The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) is a non-profit professional association that provides technical leadership for the telecommunications industry and serves its members through professional development, standards, certification and information. Visit SCTE online at www.scte.org. Connect with SCTE at www.scte.org/socialmedia.