Colby Phillips Advisory and its client, AAMIG, were recently nominated for South Australia’s 2022 Premier’s Awards in Energy and Mining.  The nomination was for “A bespoke platform to manage and optimise cost savings and revenues from investment in renewable energy” and more information on it can be found at this link: www.energymining.sa.gov.au/home/events-and-initiatives/initiatives/premiers-awards-energy-and-mining/2022-Awards-nominees/aa-managed-investment-group.

This nomination was the culmination of a more than two-year project to install a 1.4MW Solar PV / 2.1 MWh Battery system at AAMIG’s Riverland Free Range Poultry Farm – South Australia’s largest free range poultry farm.  In the absence of a market solution, Colby Phillips Advisory designed and worked with local South Australian businesses, including Dematec, to build and successfully install a proprietary Energy Management Platform for the project, which provides a behind-the-meter (BTM) software solution to:

• Manage multiple different generating assets (28×solar, 5×battery, 7×diesel gensets) across a wireless network and seven independently connected sites,
• Within a virtual embedded network,
• Trade electricity (export and import) on the spot market (including during negative pricing), and
• Meet SA Power Network’s stringent connection requirements (including export and import connection point power factor requirements).

The Energy Management Platform has helped AAMIG slash its electricity costs by 75% and reduce Scope 2 emissions by two thirds.  The Platform is now being commercialised so it can be used by other Australian agribusinesses.

This project by AAMIG and its development of the Energy Management Platform was generously supported by a $1.4m grant from the South Australian Government Energy Productivity Program.