This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 20, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: As digitalisation moves to the forefront in most sectors including the energy sector, and in particular the electricity supply industry, this creates more opportunities between the industry and the telecommunication sector.

This was one of the topics of discussion at a session yesterday at the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry 2018 hosted by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), titled “Electricity Supply Industry Digitalisation and Industrial Revolution 4.0”.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd chief technology officer Paul Scanlan said cooperation between the energy and telecommunication (telco) industries would be mutually beneficial.

“The energy industry has poles, sites and power, and the telco industry needs poles, sites and power. [On the other hand] the telco industry could assist the energy industry in two areas, namely in the distribution network and in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). They are both communications and that is our (Huawei’s) business.

“What we are proposing here are opportunities for the two industries to collaborate,” he told a roomful of power sector professionals.

Later at a press conference after the keynote address, Scanlan shared that synergies between the two industries could potentially result in cheaper mobile costs for consumers.

“65% of costs [for telco providers] are operational expenditure, [of which] 35% is site rental, 17% is in fibre backhaul, and 11% or 12% is in power. If [an energy provider] were to offer a pole to [a telco provider] for power, around 80% to 90% of costs could be saved because the energy provider has no requirement to charge me (the telco company) rental on his pole,” he said.

Scanlan said there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration with the telecommunication sector with TNB’s venture into high-speed broadband, as part of the government’s National Connectivity Plan (NCP).

“For one, TNB could provide the fibre backhaul for all the operators and wholesale it. That is a perfect synergy ... Whether TNB is able to go the last mile and provide broadband to homes, that is a different business for you ... There are some power companies trying to do this in Italy,” said Scanlan.

On Sept 6, TNB announced that it will start a pilot project in Jasin, Melaka, this month to assess the technical, safety and commercial viability aspects of using its electrical infrastructure for the NCP.

The NCP will allow faster, cheaper and wider Internet accessibility. The pilot project, to be completed by the end of 2018, will cover 1,100 out of 4,300 houses in three areas, namely Taman Merbau, Taman Maju and Felda Kemendor, in Jasin. The households will gain access to a high-speed broadband network that will be made available through TNB’s fibre optics, which forms part of the company’s existing telecommunication network.