SCTE: EDGE FACILITIES AND HFC NETWORK REPRESENT GREATEST OPPORTUNITY FOR ENERGY COST AVOIDANCE BY CABLE SYSTEM OPERATORS
February 3, 2015 02:08 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 800-542-5040
Joe Madagan, SCTE Editor, Marketing & Communications, jmadagan@scte.org
Paul Schneider, PSPR, Inc. for SCTE, pspr@att.net, 215-702-9784
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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.