Building a business case to transition from coal to renewables

Client: Centennial Coal

Background

Centennial is an underground coal producer in NSW and wholly owned subsidiary of Banpu Public Company Limited, a leading integrated energy solutions company operating in 10 countries in Asia Pacific.

Centennial supplies coal to domestic and export markets and fuels approximately 40% of NSW’s coal fired electricity. Operating five mines in NSW, including rehabilitation projects and potential new mining and energy projects, Centennial employs over 1,600 people.

Looking at a clean energy future

The Australian energy mix is changing rapidly as it reflects on the global trend towards decarbonisation. Renewables such as solar and wind energy will replace coal fired power as the main source of generation and more coal fired power plants are expected to retire in the coming decades.

As a key supplier of energy, Centennial has actively reviewed the role of its business. Its parent company, Banpu, has a commitment to a full energy value chain that includes significant investments in renewable and low carbon technology assets. With a renewed focus, Centennial looked to identify future opportunities on how it can diversify the use of its existing infrastructure and mining assets.

Steve Burgess, Executive General Manager of Digital Services at Centennial said, “We have always strived to reduce our carbon footprint. With Banpu as our parent company, Centennial has the opportunity to look at ways it can encompass more renewable energy and to use technologies that will reduce the carbon footprint of our Australian operations.”

Centennial operates the Airly Mine, an underground coal mine that is located in the Western Coalfields in New South Wales. The mine produces up to 1.8 million tonnes of coal per annum and relies heavily on grid electricity to power its operations. Being an energy intensive business, the Airly Mine looked to solar power to increase the competitiveness of its business.

The company invested close to A$5 million and commissioned a 2MW solar farm, its first ‘behind the meter’ project with 5,000 photovoltaic solar panels in 2020. Solar energy now meets a significant proportion of Airly Mine’s daytime energy requirements during the weekdays and 100 percent of the solar energy produced is exported back to the grid on weekends.

Burgess said, “The thermal coal market is very competitive, and we saw the opportunity for solar power to supplement our grid energy usage at the Airly Mine. By investing in solar energy, we will reduce our carbon footprint and energy bill. This is really important for us as we transition into a diversified energy company.”

Reducing operating costs

However, without the right data and insights, it was not possible for Centennial to maximise its investment in solar. Centennial did not have a real-time monitoring solution to keep track of energy consumption or an energy management system (EMS) to optimise the performance of its assets. Despite having conversations with different EMS vendors, Centennial was unable to find one that would suit their requirements - until they contacted SwitchDin.

SwitchDin provided Centennial with a utility Droplet controller that was connected to Stormcloud, SwitchDin’s energy monitoring and management platform. This gave Centennial complete, real-time transparency into its generation, grid energy usage and the amount of solar energy exported to the grid. 

The Droplet was deployed and commissioned at the Airly Mine site in less than three months. Once it was installed, Stormcloud provided a detailed view on the site’s overall energy usage as well as device-level consumption figures. Using real-time energy data, Centennial identified an opportunity to regulate the speed of the main ventilation fan, resulting in cost savings of approximately A$30,000 per year.

Centennial was able to draw on the insights produced by Stormcloud to negotiate a new electricity supply agreement in its favour for the Airly Mine with its current energy retailer. With its solar farm operating, Airly’s annual energy bills for grid electricity was reduced by 25 percent.

“With the Stormcloud platform, we’ve been able to see how much solar was generated by our solar farm in real-time and to get a snapshot of our load requirements. These insights have helped us understand how we can reduce our reliance on grid electricity, use more solar and decide how we will invest in solar energy for other mining sites in the future,” Burgess added.

Delivering new business outcomes with data 

With the monitoring and management features available on Stormcloud, Centennial could capitalise on its investment in the Airly Mine solar farm as a generating asset for demand management in a new electricity supply agreement. In addition to receiving a favourable supply agreement for grid electricity, the company was ready to participate in demand response and energy trading programs in the future.

Burgess said, “Historically, mining production has always been the sole focus for our business. With the growing importance of renewable energy in our business, a platform like SwitchDin helps our teams create new opportunities to allow Centennial to remain competitive while we diversify our energy mix.”

As Centennial’s business evolves from being solely based on coal to a more diversified portfolio with a focus on energy resources, energy generation and energy technology, SwitchDin demonstrates the importance of data in driving the transformation of a commercial business.