How SwitchDin optimises City of Yarra Community facilities from grid constraints to greater returns
Executive summary
The City of Yarra (CoY) is one of Victoria’s most progressive councils in addressing the climate crisis, with a community wide target of zero carbon emissions by 2030.
To date, the Council has installed solar PV systems totaling 1,117.4 kW across 48 council buildings, along with 507.3 kWh of behind-the-meter (BTM) battery storage at 11 sites. With strong community support, it successfully secured a $398k grant from the Victorian Government’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) under its groundbreaking 100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program to kick-start the City of Yarra’s “Community Charge” initiative, and the Council added a further $44,000 of its own funds to install batteries at four popular community facilities.
After considering a number of proposals to help optimise its behind-the-meter (BTM) solar and battery assets for energy arbitrage, the City of Yarra decided on clean energy tech firm SwitchDin. By adding SwitchDin’s service to its photovoltaics (PV) and battery investment, the Council expects to reduce energy costs by up to 91% compared with having no PVs, no batteries and no optimisation, while also shortening the payback time by 23%.
This integrated approach places CoY at the forefront of sustainable energy management and demonstrates what is possible when local governments, communities and technology partners work together to unlock genuine renewable energy value, delivering strong financial and environmental outcomes for their communities.
Challenges
As part of its ‘Community Charge’ program, CoY aimed to ensure it continued to invest in the best possible energy environment for its residents and businesses. This became particularly important after the council received notice from its Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) that export limits would be imposed on excess energy due to grid constraints.
The council required a solution that could:
Maximise value from solar energy through wholesale energy arbitrage
Reduce overall energy expenditure across facilities
Operate effectively under enforced export limits
Integrate with a range of solar and battery technologies
Support the Council’s long-term zero carbon strategy
The Community Charge program was conceived to prove that existing community buildings can become local clean energy assets, rapidly scaling solar generation and delivering meaningful savings to residents. Importantly, the Council sought to demonstrate a more accessible path to community energy resilience by leveraging behind-the-meter infrastructure on community facilities – rather than relying solely on large front-of-the-meter batteries. As Mayor Stephen Jolly explains:
“Community batteries drive down costs and empower the community to take ownership of their energy use… Our aim is to develop a simple and clear model that can be scaled across Yarra and beyond.”
Solution
The City of Yarra deployed SwitchDin’s Stormcloud software platform together with Droplet edge controllers at four much loved sitesto monitor and optimise energy usage in real time.
SwitchDin undertook a detailed assessment using CoY’s metering data, tariff information, and wholesale price signals from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). This modelling examined each site’s load profile, solar performance, battery availability, and network constraints.
The For each site, SwitchDin’s system continuously analyses metering data including facility demand, solar generation, battery state-of-charge, and real-time energy prices. It makes autonomous decisions to optimise energy use. The platform’s capabilities include:
Charging batteries during periods of low electricity prices or excess solar production
Discharging batteries during peak price periods to avoid high grid costs
Regulating solar export output to comply with DNSP limits
Shifting between on-site consumption and grid export/import to maximise savings
All of these actions occur automatically on-site via SwitchDin’s Droplet controllers, so that each facility operates optimally even if internet connectivity is lost. This real-time orchestration ensures that available renewable energy is used as efficiently as possible at each location.
Projected results
The early results from the Community Charge sites demonstrate substantial energy and financial benefits. For example, at Alphington Park Pavilion:
Without PVs or batteries, the site bears full energy costs.
With PVs and batteries installed, energy costs fall by about 70%.
With SwitchDin Optimiser activated, the remaining energy cost reduces by a further 68%.
Taken together, this translates to an overall 91% reduction in energy costs for that site compared to the original no-solar, no-storage baseline. In addition, the revenue generated by optimising energy use helps shorten the payback period of Council’s investment by about 23%.
This chart uses Alphington Park Pavilion as an example to show how solar, storage and SwitchDin control improve energy cost savings.
Beyond cost savings, this approach greatly improves the utilisation of locally generated renewable energy. Each site’s battery not only reduces the facility’s reliance on the grid during peak times, but also creates a buffer that makes more solar power available to the community when needed. Excess energy that might otherwise be curtailed is stored and dispatched to support nearby homes and businesses, helping reduce dependence on fossil fuels and contributing to a cleaner local grid.
Why SwitchDin
SwitchDin’s platform was chosen for its proven ability to optimise diverse distributed energy resources in real-world deployments. Key advantages of the SwitchDin solution include:
Proven optimisation across C&I, community batteries, and DER fleets
Compatibility with a wide range of solar inverter and battery systems (vendor-neutral integration)
Autonomous, local control that keeps sites running resiliently even if communications or grid connectivity fail
Deep integration with market data and evolving tariff structures
Flexibility to adapt to evolving network conditions and regulatory requirements
This ensures both immediate performance gains and a future proof optimisation framework for council assets.
Conclusion
SwitchDin’s optimisation and orchestration enable the City of Yarra to maximise the financial and operational value of its renewable energy infrastructure across multiple community facilities.
Through this approach, the council ensures that its energy investment continues to generate value well into the future, supporting clean energy adoption while strengthening a sustainable and resilient energy environment for the Yarra community.
The project showcases how CoY’s leadership, combined with SwitchDin’s technology, creates a forward-looking model that can be replicated by other councils seeking long-term energy savings and climate-aligned outcomes.
These first four pilot sites establish a scalable model that CoY can roll out across its entire asset portfolio, securing long-term energy savings and reinforcing its commitment to a sustainable, zero-carbon future.
