Affinity Village

The Challenge

Affinity Village is a strata lifestyle village consisting of 200 multi-unit dwellings and a central facility. The scheme is configured as an embedded network, and as such purchases the sites electricity supply via a single supply; then on-charges the residents via their privately-scheme owned meter network. The residents along with the village developer and operator; Stockland were seeking a solution to enable some or all the residents to deploy their own solar arrays, without adversely affecting the energy costs of the broader village. Under this scheme, the lot owners own their multi-unit roofs (in many instances roofs within strata complexes are deemed to be common area), therefore it made sense that the unit owners individually fund their own solar installations.

The lifestyle village engaged EnergyTec to undertake a feasibility study then facilitate a project and energy billing solution to accommodate a savings benefit for each lot owner, whilst concurrently minimising risk or imposts on the overarching incumbent electricity supply arrangements.

EnergyTec produced a feasibility report and a preliminary project plan; developing a project design and scope to go to the market for approximately 50 x 3.3kW solar arrays, a meter network upgrade to accommodate bi-directional reading functionality and a utility billing model incorporating a solar feed-in tariff solution for the residents who opted into the solar offer. The feasibility report was presented to the village residents outlining a less than four year return on investment (ROI) for each solar array incorporating a feed in tariff that the residents would receive from the scheme. Sixty nine residents opted into the project equating to 227 kW of combined solar generation within the privately-owned network representing 46% of total village consumption.

Our Solution

EnergyTec was appointed to:

• Go to market with an RFQ (Request for Quote) for bulk
  supply and installation of the 69 x individual solar systems
• Provide technical support during the project roll out,
  including the “take up” of the billing amendments as each of
  the units were retrofitted.
• Supply, program, commission and modify the “as installed”
  meter network to accommodate bidirectional energy flow.
• Design the feed-in tariff and deliver the cyclic utility billing
  solution. This was developed within our billing engine “Bill-
  Tec”.

Outcomes

The resident owned solar assets are generating electricity, which is supplementing their specific energy requirements and in part the entire complex. The feed-in tariffs are factored into each monthly utility statement. For every kWh of electricity fed back into the privately-owned network from the resident’s solar arrays, the resident is paid an agreed tariff that is much higher than the $0.075 per kWh that is normally paid by Synergy and is much lower than the average per unit cost paid by the village for the contracted electricity supply from the retailer, a win-win situation. EnergyTec reconcile and generate the cyclic utility statements on behalf of the scheme.

The project now generates savings and sustainable benefits for multiple stakeholders:

• The residents who have opted into the program are saving money via the electricity generated from their individually owned solar assets and further savings from the feed in tariffs.
• The residents who have not opted in, still save money because common area electricity costs are lower due to the solar feed-in and the savings flow through to the residents via their levies.
• The village purchases less electricity from the grid, because the solar feed-in’s supplement the village’s holistic consumption.
• The broader community benefits because in August 2021 – August 2022 the village generated approximately 364,792 kWh of electricity from its onsite renewable sources, which equates to 46% of its total electricity requirements for the year. This equates to emissions reductions of 284 tonnes of CO2 per annum.