China Is Establishing an Energy-Saving Standard System for the Communications Industry

Finding a "parameter" that can effectively reflect the energy-saving characteristics of a product. The communications industry, which is relatively "niche" in the field of energy conservation and emission reduction, is also actively carrying out energy-saving efforts, and this "niche" sector actually has the same energy-saving potential as other "hot" industries. A reporter recently learned from China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL) that China is actively establishing an energy-saving standard system for the communications industry, providing "norms" for energy conservation in the communications industry through standardization.

Jiang Jingxin, Director of the Environmental Protection and Reliability Testing Department of the TEL Environmental Promotion Center and China Telecommunication Technology Labs under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), told reporters that China's energy-saving standard system for the communications industry first divides the energy-saving standards into three parts: the manufacturing stage, the operation and usage stage, and the recycling and disposal stage. On this basis, it is further divided into general standards and product standards. For product standards at the operation and usage stage, a two-stage system is established, comprising the "energy-saving parameters and test methods" series and the "limits and grading" series.

With the further expansion of the user base and the rapid growth of business volume, the power consumption of the telecommunications industry will continue to grow at a relatively fast pace. The potential for China's communications industry to reduce its own emissions is considerable. It is understood that China Mobile, through its low-carbon development strategy, is expected to reduce its electricity consumption from 18.2 billion kWh to 10 billion kWh in 2010, saving 8.2 billion kWh of electricity, equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 6.8 million tons.

To this end, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) under the MIIT has specially established a special task group for energy conservation and comprehensive utilization of communications equipment (CCSA/ST2). "At present, the standard system for China's communications industry has been listed as a key research project by CCSA and the Science and Technology Department of the MIIT, and the research on this project was completed and concluded earlier this year," said Jiang Jingxin.

It is reported that the standards already completed by the MIIT include the "Guidelines for Energy Efficiency Grading of Communications Products" and the "General Rules for Energy Consumption Test Methods of Communications Products." The CAICT is currently developing a large number of industry standards, including energy-saving parameters and test methods for data center servers, energy-saving parameters and test methods for routers, and energy-saving parameters and test methods for fourth-generation mobile communication base station equipment.

Jiang Jingxin told reporters that in addition to these standards, the current focus is mainly on developing standards for the operation and usage stage, which also include a large number of energy-saving product standards for power supplies and equipment room facilities. The vast majority are at the "energy-saving parameters and test methods" series stage, while some standards are being prepared to address the "limits and grading" stage. Standards for the manufacturing and recycling stages have not yet begun to be developed.

According to the introduction, the standards at the "energy-saving parameters and test methods" series stage mainly focus on identifying the primary and auxiliary energy-saving parameters suitable for evaluating such products (i.e., which parameters can effectively reflect the energy-saving characteristics of products) and unifying the test methods for these parameters. At present, the products covered by the first batch of standards under development are mostly those with the highest energy consumption in the network and the terminal products with the greatest impact.

It is understood that, unlike many consumer electronic products, energy conservation in the communications industry has its own characteristics, namely that the functional output of its products is very difficult to identify and measure. Other types of electronic products do not require a series of standards to unify the energy-saving characteristics of products, as it is easy to find parameter dimensions that can measure product energy efficiency. However, communications products face significant uncertainty in this regard, and without unification, it is almost impossible to distinguish the energy-saving characteristics of products.

"At the current stage, for communications networks, the main sources of energy consumption are the efficiency of power supplies and air conditioning in equipment rooms, as well as the large number of mobile communications base stations deployed and the ever-emerging data center equipment rooms of various types. For terminals, the greatest energy-saving potential comes from the efficiency of power adapters for communications products. Therefore, the current focus of energy-saving standards development is on the above products," said Jiang Jingxin. "The progress of the standard system is currently very normal, and these standards have received support and cooperation from all parties, especially the assistance of various operators."

Liu Liqing, President of the China Association of Communications Enterprises, once pointed out that the annual electricity consumption of China's communications industry has exceeded 30 billion kWh, a figure that cannot be ignored. Therefore, energy conservation and emission reduction efforts in the communications industry hold great potential.

Jiang Jingxin believes that once these standards are issued, they will put an end to the situation where evaluations of energy-saving characteristics vary across the communications product field. They will unify the energy-saving characteristic parameters required by operators and other equipment purchasers in procurement and bidding, enabling equipment manufacturers to design energy-saving characteristics in a targeted manner and to uniformly evaluate them. This will greatly promote the actual process of energy conservation and emission reduction across the entire communications industry.