Yunnan sets up nation's first electric tower sharing solution

A telecommunication station is successfully installed on the N38 electric tower in Donggua town in Chuxiong, Yunnan province. [Photo by Chen Bo/people.cn]

An agreement on sharing electric towers has been signed between China Southern Power Grid's (CSPG) Yunnan branch and China Tower's Yunnan branch on March 26, marking promotional phase of electrical infrastructure sharing in Yunnan.
 
Sharing electric towers means to add new telecommunication stations on electric towers, especially on those with the same voltage output. The solution can not only save costs for new towers but also reduce land use and construction time.

Workers carry out installation work on an electric tower. [Photo by Chen Bo/people.cn]

Statistics show that if a 20-meter-high macro station uses a shared electric tower, the construction period can be reduced to 30 days from the original 50 days, also without any land expropriation. 
 
Primary estimation suggests that CSPG Yunnan branch has 1,624 towers to be matched this year, able to reduce land expropriation by nearly 20,000 square kilometers, more than 20,000 tons of building materials for new towers, over 30,000 days from construction period and hundreds of million yuan in costs.

Statistics show that the sharing solution can not only save construction costs but also reduce land usage and construction time. [Photo by Chen Bo/people.cn]

"The electric network runs on low-frequency wave range while the telecommunication network needs high-frequency wave range, so there's no interference between the two networks. We have also achieved a number of technological patents," said Wang Kunlin, head of the production and technology department of CSPG Yunnan branch. 

The trial operation of the shared towers began on June 30, 2017 and both parties of the project aims to apply the solution to a wider range across the world, especially for countries and regions involved in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation.

Editor: John Li