Executive Summary
The ever-increasing demand for data traffic in a cable network presents an inherent uptick in power consumption in the inside plant (ISP) and outside plant (OSP) portions of the cable network. This document serves as an operational best practice playbook to address this challenge, outlining industry-proven methods for optimizing a cable network's power consumption efficiency. Operators will explore traditional and cutting-edge strategies to reduce overall energy consumption, providing a framework for achieving savings across a cable network.
Scope
This document provides a comprehensive overview and serves as a guide to other SCTE energy documents, which collectively address energy efficiency optimizations and strategies for critical equipment within cable operator facilities and data centers and various classes found in SCTE 226.
Benefits
Reducing an operator’s network energy consumption offers a two-fold benefit. Peering through an environmental lens, this focus translates to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to a more sustainable future, helping to achieve an operator’s climate goals. Through an economic lens, it assists in reducing an operator’s overall year-over-year (YoY) operating expenses (OPEX).
Wasteful spending on energy becomes extremely costly as energy prices continue to rise. Reducing or eliminating even a few of these operational best practice examples may have a compounding effect across the entire cable network. Within this document, operators will examine some common and not-so-common energy-reducing practices in the network.
Intended Audience
Cable/ data center operators, headend/ hub site owners, technicians, critical infrastructure engineers, and facility management.