Why Powersmart ?
Until now, good professional and independent advice by experienced engineers has been expensive and hard to come by in regional and rural areas. Since 2011 on, more and more clients have discovered that our services pay for themselves within a few months – sometimes less than 1 month.
Ugly and inefficient – the ‘old’ power grid
The need for reducing bottom line costs is becoming more and more urgent. Electricity and gas costs account for a large percentage of any business bottom line – time-of-use pricing increases the need to plan energy use wisely and timely.
Before considering renewable energy options, forward-looking businesses reduce their energy footprint – after all, energy that is not being consumed, does not need to be replaced. However, in some cases PV Solar provides a cheaper option for more immediate power cost savings than, for example, a costly overall air conditioning retrofit.
Of course, eventually any air conditioning system will require replacement. State-of-the art air conditioners will use significantly less power. If PV Solar was installed first, it can result in excess solar energy that may be wasted in the absence of a meaningful feed-in tariff!
IPART has taken some pressure off the electricity prices by limiting peak demand charges, but retail energy prices are on the up again due to the uncertainty about LNG prices, particularly in relation to the Ukraine-Russian war. Add to that dirty and more and more unreliable coal fired generators being shut down (e.g. Hazelwood in 2018, Liddell in 2023 latest). The inevitable progression to cleaner and more sustainable energy sources will require investment in new technologies and mothballing of old coal-fired power-plants – not a cheap process, but new solar and wind power is already cheaper than new coal or gas plants, and big batteries are rapidly becoming more cost effective. This non-stoppable development may lead to higher energy costs for traditional grid energy in the short to mid term, but should turn around by 2025.
As more and more power users switch to renewable energy, those who cannot easily rely on renewable energy alone, will pay more for the use of the proverbial “poles & wires”. The companies that own the network, such as Essential Energy in the Northern Rivers area or Energex in SE QLD, will try to cover their cost of maintaining the grid from a continually decreasing user base. ‘Demand’ charges are increasingly forced upon residential users in form of $ per kW or kVA per 30 minute interval*.
Additional cost pressure will have to be borne by power customers for transitioning the grid to take up and distribute the solar and wind power generated in many, often remote, places (new transmission lines). To increase grid reliability and stability, new costly inter-connectors will have to be built.
* Energex currently forces retailers to charge some 13 cents per kW (maximum of kW in any 30 minute period of the month, applied to the entire month). For exampel, if you have a peak demand of 4kW averaged over a 30 minute period as the highest in a month, you’ll be charged 52 cents per day for every day of the billing period).
Price forecast to 2041
Why will energy prices remain at a high level?
- Gas is still a price setter and very expensive at present (Jan. 23). As distributors buy more and more into solar and wind farms, this marginal cost setting will ease dramatically. How soon the cost relief will be passed on to consumers, depends largely on the pressure governments apply.
- Major Asian economies keep growing and require more and more energy resources
- Australian electricity grid infrastructure is in large part not suited to decentralised generation and needs to be adapted
- More decentralised energy generators, such as windfarms, require strengthening of the grid at the bottom end of the network
- More frequent severe weather events caused by climate change put pressure on maintenance costs and may require underground wiring in some places (bushfire and storm protection).
Why powersmart ?
- Proven track record of delivering cost and carbon savings to commercial, industrial and residential customers
- We are experienced INDEPENDENT energy auditors and engineers, covering the entire range of technologies, from simple lighting retrofits to complex industrial and commercial retrofits and optimisation
- We constantly watch the market for innovative energy efficiency solutions and concepts
- Our services are concise, affordable and custom tailored
- We guarantee that our reports and assessments will provide unmatched value for money
View our range of services.
Check out our range of satisfied clients.
Read below what our clients say:
“Michael Qualmann, now proprietor of Powersmart Energy Efficiency, conducted an energy assessment on Lismore Lake Holiday Park in 2011.
Through thorough investigation of our power needs, in particular the peak demand experienced by the park, Michael devised an “Energy Efficiency Plan” using a multitude of clever ideas and efficient new technology. He then supervised its installation while facilitating government subsidy for a large portion of the costs for implementing the plan.
Thanks again Michael! We are now reaping the reward through everyday electricity savings.”
Lismore City Council
The local Council provides for 2 municipal pools, a multi-purpose Aquatic Centre and an olympic sized outdoor pool:
- LISMORE MEMORIAL BATH (LMB)
Olympic sized outdoor pool, used for 10
months per year. Last refurbished in 1995. - GOONELLABAH AQUATIC CENTRE (GSAC)
25m main indoor pool with 2 smaller pools,
indoor sports fields, gym and other facilities.
The facility is just 3 years old.
Both pools were audited in 2011 by the (now) lead auditor of powersmart Energy Efficiency, Michael Qualmann. The audits found cost savings potentials of 25% for GSAC and 58% for LMB.
Lismore City Council applied for funding under the Community Energy Efficiency Program and was successful as one of only 20 council project across Australia:
The Australian Government will pay $318,000 towards the cost of retrofitting both facilities and making them top-of-the-class energy efficient, saving Council more than $100,000 p.a. in running costs.
” I would like to sincerely thank you for your contribitution in making this happen. Your energy audit was the hard evidence we needed to be successful.”
(Graham Walker, Team Leader Aquatics at Lismore City Council)
Julie Hornibrook & Jacob Pfaeffli – “Designing our new home, we wanted it to be as energy efficient as possible. We had heard about powersmart energy efficiency and asked Michael Qualmann from that firm to conduct a pre-construction energy audit on our chosen design. A civil engineer myself, I was impressed by the depth of knowledge, the ingenuity of recommendations and the energy savings identified, resulting in a design that may turn out to be one of most energy efficient homes on the Far North Coast of NSW. I have no hesitation to recommend powersmart for energy audits” (April 2012)
