Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Abstract:
This paper presents BTS life cycle cost analysis of diesel generator and National grid in Nigeria. The BTS cost analysed was cost of BTS power equipment acquisition, operation and maintenance. The load demand of BTS was accessed using the load demand of diesel generator and National grid. The life cycle cost was used to compare diesel generator and the National grid. LCCA is an economic method in which all cost arising from owning, operating, maintenance and disposing of power equipment are analysed. LCCA is well suited to the economic evaluation of design alternatives that satisfy a required performance level. It may have different investment, operating maintenance cost or repaired cost and possibly different life span. It is particularly relevant to the evaluation of investments where high costs are traded for reduced future cost obligation. The determination of the economic viability of diesel generator set system is important to effectively compare cost competitiveness with the National grid. Most of the base stations in Nigeria are in the rural areas there is no power supply from the national grid and two diesel generators are used as back up source in case of power failure or outages. In addition, some sites are so far from the point where diesel can be obtained that they required tanks to store up to three months fuel. The methodology used in this work was to visit a BTS and access the load demand. The demand was now used to compute the life cycle cost for generator set and the National grid system. From the LCC analysis conducted to assess the economic viability, the result of this study shows that the generator set should be encouraged to power remotely located BTS.

Keywords: load demand, life cycle cost, BTS, life span, national grid, generator set, based station

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