LAHORE – The power source of around 700 billboards and 12,000 mobile towers across Punjab is still to be shifted from electric to solar. Ten months have passed since the Punjab government and the Ministry of Environment National Energy Conversation Center issued warnings to the installations’ owners. Converting billboards and cell phone towers from electric power supply to solar energy could save around 50 to 60 Megawatts of electricity but neither the Punjab government nor the Ministry of Environment had succeeded in influencing telecom companies and advertising agencies to act upon the energy conservation plan, a senior official from the Ministry of Environment told Pakistan Today.
“On the flipside of the revolutionary cell phone network expansion is the million tons of annual carbon emissions from those mobile towers that run on diesel,” he added. He said the Punjab government had intimated all the mobile tower and electric billboard owners to shift the energy source from electric to solar from June 30, 2010. However, on the instruction of the federal government, Punjab I&P Department extended the date until further orders for mobile companies, he revealed. He said almost one year was about to pass but the plan was yet to be implemented.
On April 13, 2011, Ministry of Water and Power unveiled new energy conservation measures for the upcoming six months to help lessen the impact of the country’s growing energy crisis. Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar, in his detailed briefing to the National Assembly about the measures, said that power supply to billboards and commercial decorative lighting would be cut off. An official of the Punjab government said that telecom companies tactfully got themselves excluded from the new energy conservation plan using their ‘influence’ in the ministry.
“Now, they are safe and unaffected from energy conservation plan,” he added. PEPCO DG (Energy Management Conversation) Muhammad Khalid said that Ministry of Environment had been preparing the policy and after its formulation, the decision to suspend the power supply to billboards and mobile towers would be taken. He expressed his ignorance about the numbers of billboards and mobile towers converted to solar panel, saying that there was no deadline in this regard. I&P Chief Engineer Power said that extension to mobile towers should never be misapprehended as a respite. But, he said, in the case of billboards, sword had been hanging over them. He said that if billboards throughout the province were found operational on power supply they would be disconnected soon.
A telecom company official said that move to covert BTS towers from electric power supply to solar energy was ‘like a bombshell’ on the telecom industry. “Everyone is bewildered and clueless. We are bound to follow the guidelines of the PTA and the federal ministry. Notices from the Punjab government were beyond understanding,” he added.
