How our Data-Driven Energy Diagnostic Recently Uncovered 23% Savings at a Live Telecoms Site
Energy efficiency has become a board-level concern for telecoms operators. Rising electricity prices, tightening sustainability targets, and the growing power demands of network infrastructure mean that even well-run sites are under pressure to do more with less. Yet many organisations still rely on design assumptions, legacy setpoints, or static rules of thumb when managing energy use.
This anonymised case study illustrates how a short, non-intrusive Energy Diagnostic transformed understanding of power consumption at a live telecoms site — and revealed substantial savings that could be delivered without operational risk.
The Challenge: Limited Visibility into Real Energy Performance
The operator in this case manages a large portfolio of fixed-line and network infrastructure sites. While energy costs were known at a high level, there was limited visibility into how energy was actually being consumed within individual facilities — particularly across cooling systems, power conversion equipment, and environmental control.
Key questions remained unanswered:
Have cooling systems been operating efficiently relative to modern standards?
Were fans, chillers, and rectifiers correctly matched to real-world loads?
Where could savings be achieved without compromising resilience or uptime?
To answer these questions, the operator commissioned our independent Energy Diagnostic across a small sample of representative sites, which uses real-time measurement rather than theoretical modelling.
The Diagnostic Approach: Measure First, Optimise Second
The Diagnostic programme combined the deployment of sensors and meters with a central analytics platform. Over a 30-day period, the system continuously captured:
Power and energy consumption
Temperature and humidity
Airflow performance and thermal differentials
Load distribution across power conversion systems
Rather than attempting wholesale redesign, the focus was on understanding actual operational behaviour and identifying efficiency improvements that could be addressed through configuration changes and improved control.
Initial analysis concentrated on a single live site to validate the approach before wider rollout.
What the Data Revealed
Despite the site operating within accepted design limits, the Diagnostic identified three clear opportunities for improvement.
1. Cooling Setpoints Were More Conservative Than Necessary
The site’s cooling system was configured within legacy temperature practices, even though modern industry guidance allows for higher operating temperatures. The data showed that a modest increase in supply air temperature would:
Reduce cooling plant runtime
Improve chiller efficiency
Extend the hours during which free cooling could be used
Crucially, these gains could be achieved without exceeding recommended thermal limits for IT equipment.
The result: an 11–12% reduction in cooling energy from setpoint adjustment alone.
2. Air Handling Units Were Using More Fan Power Than Required
Analysis of temperature differentials across multiple air handling units showed consistently low delta-T values. This indicated that air was moving too quickly through the system, limiting heat transfer while consuming unnecessary fan energy.
By reducing fan speeds — particularly on EC fans where power consumption follows a cubic relationship — the site could dramatically lower energy use while maintaining the same cooling effect.
This single optimisation represented the largest opportunity identified, accounting for the majority of potential savings at the site.
3. Power Conversion Was Already Efficient — But Still Optimisable
The Diagnostic also examined rectifier performance. While the system was already operating at high efficiency, data showed that minor reconfiguration could bring loading closer to the rectifier’s peak efficiency point.
Although the absolute savings here were small, the insight was valuable: it confirmed that the Diagnostic highlights where action is worthwhile — and where it is not.
The Outcome: 23% Energy Cost Reduction Identified
When the opportunities were combined and conservatively extrapolated over a full year, the Diagnostic identified:
Over 85 MWh in annual energy savings
More than 23% reduction in site energy costs
The majority of savings achievable through configuration changes rather than capital investment
Importantly, these findings were based on measured data from a live environment, not theoretical assumptions.
Why This Matters for Network Operators
This case study highlights a recurring theme across telecoms infrastructure portfolios:
significant inefficiencies often exist even at sites that appear well managed.
Without granular data, organisations tend to either over-invest in upgrades or miss low-risk optimisation opportunities entirely. A focused Energy Diagnostic provides:
Evidence-based prioritisation of actions
Clear separation between “quick wins” and low-value changes
Confidence to act without compromising resilience
Next Steps: From Insight to Action
In this case, the operator chose to extend the Diagnostic approach to additional sites, using the findings to inform a network-wide optimisation strategy.
If you are responsible for energy performance across fixed or mobile telecoms, data centres, or critical infrastructure, the first step is not new technology — it is clarity.
Our targeted Energy Diagnostic can rapidly establish where energy is being wasted, what can be safely optimised, and where investment will deliver real returns. The approach deploys a range of sensors into the network which become an integral part of the network infrastructure. This allows initial one-off gains from the Diagnostic and also long-term energy optimisation through real-time control of site parameters from our intelligent management platform.
If you would like to explore what this approach could uncover in your own network, an initial consultation is the logical place to start.