Micro-grids for Property Developers

Building tenants in future want the same services as homeowners. They want to be able to charge up to two EV’s in the basement parking plus enjoy the benefit of using building solar to charge their EV. Then the advent of batteries has given owners the choice of selling solar power back to the grid during peak hours or having it on standby in case of a blackout.

As a property developer, if you can tick all these boxes, future developments will be in demand.

Let’s step back a bit to the massive changes occurring in energy markets. It’s only a few years ago that your local energy company produced the power in a coal power station, despatched it to your home, and sent the energy meter reader to your home, then the bill. They were a “one stop shop”. The tables are now turned. New property developments can be the “one stop shop” even selling power back into the grid to those less fortunate.

This adds a new dimension to Property Development: Property and Energy Construction plus on-going energy services for the building tenants. Welcome to technology of the future.

If this sounds “a step too far”, then it may be time to hang up the hat and ride into the sunset. There are plenty of budding developers who will know how to market this technology for a differentiated product giving buyers convenience and assurance of power.

Here is a scenario of what this technology can do for your building development. Let’s track the day in the life of apartment owners: Steve and Jean. Steve works for an IT company, Jean for a logistics company at their main distribution centre. Jean gets the benefit of charging her EV during the day from excess solar on the warehouse roof. Most days it is full.

Jean arrives home and plugs her EV into the high-speed charging station in the guest parking at the building. The high-speed charger reads Jean’s vehicle’s VIN automatically and knows if the battery is over 90% full, Jean wants to drain the battery and sell power back to the grid during peak time. This occurs effortlessly and Jean goes to the apartment. Steve arrives shortly after and parks in one of the apartment car parks. He plugs into the EV charger at his carpark which also reads his VIN and charges the car. He does not need to use a smart phone nor key tag.

Steve does the chivalrous thing and takes Jean’s car from the supercharger (fills or drains the car battery completely in 30 mins) and parks it in the second apartment carpark. He walks into a nice welcome home drink. Steve and Jean are Platinum members of the building’s Energy System. As a Platinum member they get preferred charging and preferred reservation on the supercharger. So they can follow this routine every day if they wish. Their energy bill every month is nil. They get a rebate back. thanks to Jean’s warehouse solar charging.

Steve does backup IT work at home and it’s important that power to their unit never suddenly goes down. As a Platinum member, they get an assurance of battery backup for a specified time. This is enough for Steve to save all files and suspend his work during the next power outage, which have become more frequent.

Steve or Jean load their dishwasher and washing machine. In the apartment, they have selected “lowest power cost to run” option on the home Energy control panel (also google Home). These appliances are then powered to run when the energy cost in the next 12 hours is at the lowest point.

On the weekend, Steve and Jean go for a long drive and catch up with friends.

They are saving over $400 a week on fuel costs compared to their friends diesel & petrol car. They are saving close to $100 a week compared to their friend’s electricity bill.

That’s $25,000 per annum of savings. Big smiles with Steve and Jean.

Well done Property Developer for reading this story, this could be your next happy customer. Our software will port into your billing system. Our System is Cyber protected and product compliant with Clean Energy Council of Australia.

Contact Safiery for a chat. Safiery is a member of the Clean Energy Council and holds all the Licences needed to design and supervise these projects. No project too big nor too small.

“Live in a World without Consuming the Earth”

Here is a survey of building tenants in 2018 in Sydney: