Mobile networks probably cannot benefit from electricity load shifting as much as consumer households. Modern mobile networks increasingly are energy efficient and designed to accommodate peak use without linear increases in energy consumption.
Compared to other access networks or devices, mobile radio networks actually use relatively little energy.
On the other hand, mobile communications demand--unlike consumer electricity demand--cannot be so easily shifted. For many customers, whether working remotely or “at the office,” demand cannot be shifted much. One has to communicate with customers or business partners when those people are available. Dynamic pricing does not shift behavior very much.
Many consumers whose homes are outfitted with smart meters know that dynamic pricing often is enabled after the introduction of such meters. In summer months, for example, pricing peaks from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., as that is the peak period for air-conditioning-driven electricity usage.
Shifting some demand to off-peak (weekends, evenings) sheds load, helping utilities cope with peak demand.
Mobile network base stations also have energy usage profiles that fluctuate by day of week and time of day. Here is a plot of the weekly energy consumption of a mobile network base station.
On a daily basis, electricity consumption has two peaks during working hours.
Compared to fixed network phone usage, there is likely less opportunity to shed load by encouraging off peak consumption. To the extent mobiles get used when people are commuting to work, or starting their work day, load shifting is difficult.
Indeed, a GSMA study found mobile network electricity consumption was relatively unchanged in the face of enforced work from home and remote education policies. More efficient networks helped, and also a shift of mobile network traffic to Wi-Fi.
Work from home has some effect on electricity consumption, but some studies show change on the order of four percent.
There is a reason electricity customers sometimes see dynamic pricing for their use of electricity: total demand fluctuates on weekdays (morning and evening peaks) and is generally lower overall on the weekends. There is variation by season as well, with summer months representing peak use (air conditioning).
The reason for lower weekend consumption is not so much that consumers change behavior as that commercial and business usage is lower on weekends.
Domestic electricity consumption patterns appear to have changed because of the Covid-19 stay-at-home rules. A study of U.K. homes by Octopus Energy found Monday showed no sign of increased daytime consumption.
Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday show increasing daytime consumption presumably as more customers work from home.
Friday shows slightly reduced daytime consumption increases perhaps as Friday is a more common day to work from home in a typical week.
On the most pronounced day, Wednesday, the customers used an average of 4.3 percent more electricity and 4.6 percent more gas.
There could be corresponding “business” energy use shifts of a some percentage points if remote work becomes permanent for large numbers of people. Fewer people in offices will tend to reduce consumption. So will less demand at all other co-located business locations (restaurants, stores).
But mobile networks should not see too much change, no matter what happens. The networks are efficient, getting more so, and impose relatively light costs in terms of energy consumption, compared to other computing or communications activities.
Widespread use of small cells could have an impact, but so far it is not clear how total network energy consumption changes. Smalls represent additional sites, but also represent less power consumption per site. Energy to support computing at small cells can vary, based on the network architecture (centralized versus decentralized).
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