In order to guard against power outages and ensure efficient running of its infrastructure, Safaricom has entered into a battery supply deal with General Electric (GE) for provision of GE’s Durathon batteries to provide backup power during prolonged power outages.
As part of the deal, Safaricom has signed a Kshs 100 million deal which will see GE supplying it with 48 GE Durathon batteries which will capacitate the Safaricom network to run efficiently during power outages.
Speaking while making the announcement, GE President and Africa CEO, Jay Ireland said GE is committed to partnering with stakeholders to broaden the innovation play in Kenya and the rest of Africa, adding that sustainable power supply continues to be one of Africa’s critical challenges and Kenya is no exception.
“Kenya is growing rapidly and to ensure that we have an enabling environment that supports sustainable growth, we need to adopt innovative ways to overcome inhibiting challenges such as interrupted power supply. The GE Durathon battery will achieve just that for Safaricom and its customers,” said Ireland.
The GE Africa boss noted that the battery provides reliable and cost-effective power for the telecommunications sector at reduced fuel costs.
“Durathon Battery technology is one of the first batteries in the world to be designed specifically for Charge Discharge Cycling (CDC) telecom applications. By using batteries as the primary energy source in a continuous charge-discharge-cycling (CDC) operating mode, fuel costs and emissions can be substantially reduced and overall system efficiency dramatically improved”, he said.
He said Durathon Batteries are ideal for back-up applications in urban centres where space is at a premium. “They are designed to run at 48V and constructed from abundantly available materials, individual Durathon Battery modules are inherently less attractive to thieves looking to run consumer electronics or recoup material reclamation,” Ireland said.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore expressed his company’s excitement on acquiring this new technology and said Safaricom continues to put the customer first.
“The introduction of using this technology will ensure that our customer receives uninterrupted usage of our mobile services. It also re-affirms our strong commitment to lowering our carbon footprint through efficient consumption of energy by exploring alternative energy solutions and improving overall QoS through innovation,” Collymore said.
The Durathon are provided by GE Energy Storage Business unit which works to enable safer, efficient and cost effective storage, distribution and utilization of energy where it’s needed. As a global technology leader and supplier of advanced battery energy storage systems, GEES provides Durathon battery modules and complete energy storage solutions to the Telecommunications, Energy Management, and Power Generation, Grid operations, Backup and Motive power industries
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