A telecoms operator in Montenegro has signed a 10-year lithium-ion battery storage supply contract for its cell towers situated across the country.
Crnogorski Telekom (CT), part of Deutsche Telekom, currently uses a combination of diesel generators and lead-acid batteries for backup power.
CT said it has signed a deal with Swedish telecoms firm Ericsson and Japanese electronic giant Panasonic to switch to lithium-ion storage.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for designing, deploying and managing the lithium-ion battery and power infrastructure solutions, while Panasonic will handle the manufacturing, supply, asset ownership and service-level agreements and support.
Ericsson brought in Panasonic’s lithium-ion batteries to its ‘energy-as-a-service’ solution for mobile operators and tower companies in February 2017. According to Ericsson, lithium-ion is “less vulnerable to damage resulting from excessive discharging and extreme temperatures”.
Peter Laurin, head of managed services at Ericsson, said: “Together with Panasonic, we will reduce the cost of energy equipment ownership for targeted CT sites by up to 40%.”