Achieving an Ambitious Net Zero Emission Target Through Distributed Solar Assets

Client: Newcastle City Council

Location: Newcastle, New South Wales 

Powering a better future with clean energy

Founded in 1938, the Newcastle City Council (NCC) is the second largest local government area outside of Greater Sydney. Its residential population is forecasted to grow to more than 202,000 by 2041. The council manages a vast network of buildings and facilities that its residents use.

Similar to many local councils across Australia, the NCC is faced with cost pressures stemming from rising electricity bills. To maintain a cost-effective operation, the council has invested in renewable energy to power some of its own properties as part of its broader strategy to reduce its reliance on grid electricity.

Along with the NCC’s commitment to sustainability, it plans to reach Net Zero Emissions (NZE) for its operations by 2030. The goal includes a 20 percent reduction in electricity use against its FY 2019/20 consumption. To meet its NZE targets, NCC will look to increase its use of renewable energy.

Managing a large and distributed portfolio of solar assets

NCC started to roll out a wide range of distributed energy resources (DER) on council owned properties in 2017. It currently has 11 sites with a total capacity of over 400 kW that are powered by solar. This includes rooftop solar systems installed on buildings such as the City Library, City Admin Centre and Newcastle Museum. At the Number 1 and 2 Sportsgrounds, batteries have been installed to optimise the use of solar generated at these locations.

With electrification being a priority for NCC, the council installed a Schneider Electric and Tritium EV public charging station for five vehicles at Number 2 Sportsground and a Schneider Electric EV charging station for five vehicles at the City Administration Centre for the council’s EV fleet.

Having to manage such a diverse range of assets, obtaining real-time data on the performance of its portfolio was crucial to NCC. The data was necessary for three main reasons: to provide insights on whether a DER was underperforming and needed maintenance, to keep track of the performance of its portfolio of assets and for reporting on how solar is offsetting the use of grid electricity.

As NCC had rolled out the installation of DER over several years, it needed to address the complexity of monitoring and managing these systems. There are products from different manufacturers across the council’s portfolio, including rooftop solar inverters from SolarEdge to SMA, and battery inverters from LS Energy Solutions, Powerbrick, Victron Energy and Batrium Battery Management Systems. The assets are coupled with smart meters from Schneider Electric and communication gateways for inverters like Victron Energy, Enphase Energy and SMA. Following the introduction of EV charging, Schneider Electric meters were used to monitor the power usage from its EV chargers.

Mark Sumner, Project Manager Environment and Sustainability said, “The situation that Newcastle City Council faces as an asset owner isn’t unique. Like many other organisations or businesses that have installed and managed distributed energy resources in multiple locations over a period of time, it's not possible to standardise on the brands of hardware solutions we use for all of our assets.

This adds a layer of complications, as every manufacturer has their own software platform and a different way of recording and reporting data. It can be time consuming to obtain data from an entire portfolio of DER assets from multiple sites.”

Finding the needle in a haystack with real-time data

NCC looked to SwitchDin to provide an integrated, real-time solution that would provide them with data and visibility for its entire portfolio of DER to support the NCC operations team. 

Using SwitchDin’s Droplet controllers as communications gateways and smart energy managers, NCC is able to manage its behind-the-meter solar, batteries and key loads across 11 sites. Data from the Droplets is uploaded automatically through Wi-Fi or mobile internet to Stormcloud, SwitchDin’s smart, digital platform that securely connects DER from anywhere on the grid and makes them more secure and efficient. Through Stormcloud, NCC is able to connect, control and communicate with all of its DER regardless of the brands of devices.

NCC uses dashboards it creates in Stormcloud to provide highly granular information on how each site is performing. These sites are aggregated to a single dashboard to provide an overview of the 11 sites that the council manages, giving users the ability to see their performance at any time. Data available through the dashboards include solar production, consumption, battery charge/discharge and electricity exported/imported from the grid. NCC relies on Stormcloud to report on the performance of its assets and to provide insights that inform the council on how it can plan for the use of DER more effectively.

In total, NCC’s solar assets on 11 sites has reduced its annual energy bill by approximately $230,000 in 2021.

Mr Sumner said, “By investing in rooftop solar, batteries and EV charging infrastructure, we’ve reduced our operating costs and responded to the climate crisis by decreasing our reliance on grid electricity. Through our investment in renewables, we would like to inspire Newcastle residents to consider how they can use affordable and clean energy to power their own homes and to join us in building a more resilient city for the future.” 

Another reason why NCC selected SwitchDin was the desire to invest in an Australian energy technology management provider. Mr Sumner added, “SwitchDin checks all the boxes in our search for an energy technology partner. They provide an innovative solution to manage our fleet of solar assets and they’ve worked closely with us to expand the range of assets in our portfolio. Partnering with a Newcastle-based company also means that our council is supporting the local economy and raising the profile of Newcastle as a smart city.”

Integrating new assets for a brighter future 

NCC continues to look at ways to decarbonise their energy footprint, and has invested in large-scale solar generation while setting its sights on new energy storage projects and the electrification of its garbage trucks in the future.

It currently operates a 5MW solar farm at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre that produces enough electricity to meet the equivalent annual energy requirements of more than 1,300 households in Newcastle.

The council is starting to look at emerging technologies such as vehicle-to-grid charging to support its energy goals. Changes to the electricity spot market pricing has also made it more attractive for NCC to explore how it can use SwitchDin’s technology to discharge its batteries during a peak period to create new revenue streams.

As NCC ramps up on its investment in renewable energy, SwitchDin continues to work with the council to explore how it can integrate these assets to support the council’s ambitions to achieve NZE through electrification.