Take control of your communities infrastructure, reduce grid reliance, costs, and carbon emissions to save up to 25% on bills through embedded networks. If you're in a strata complex, until recently, you couldn't benefit from installing solar and there was no way to equitably distribute the benefit of this variable clean energy source. Until now!
Embedded networks are the internal submetering networks within a building complex with multiple lots or a community, monitoring electricity, gas, and water usage by individual lots.
Older buildings may have very old meters such as the old Western Power meters we removed from a recent embedded network conversion below, these are manually read and actively being phased out.
Old mechanical meters may slow down over time and commonly have errors from between 3% to more than 35% which leads to poor reconciliation and nonequitable distribution of consumption and cost. Would you like to be paying for someone else's electricity consumption?
Recently as part of the modern National Construction Code (NCC) compliance and sustainability tools such as Greenstar and NABERS have overseen a transition to embedded networks in strata buildings, commercial buildings, retirement villages, caravan parks, and Ecovillages.
Embedded electricity networks are privately owned electricity distribution systems within a strata scheme or a lot that is grid-connected.
Most embedded networks we are finding which are unconverted do not have a Western Power Master Meter, such as the one below, which enables access to 30 minute interval data and gives us the ability to perform some energy and renewable energy analysis to provide accurate business cases, energy audit and payback analysis.
Embedded network conversions enable the distribution and selling of grid and embedded generation of renewable energy.
Since the Strata's owners’ corporation owns the embedded network infrastructure, new Strata Regulations passed in May 2020 enable sustainable infrastructure upgrades with approval from 51% of votes at an AGM to pass.
Parties that support embedded networks include your energy manager, the licensed electricity retailer, embedded network service provider, the embedded network customers being the lot owners and tenants in the scheme.
Sustainability sinking funds can support lot owners generate revenue from occupiers consuming energy for your body corporate to cover upgrades in your 10 year maintenance plan, energy efficiency measures or invest in distributed energy resources such as solar PV, batteries, and electric vehicle (EV's) chargers to benefit all of the owners.
Element47 can accurately advise you on cost allocation and support you on your Strata's journey including cost allocation and billing automation. These sustainability retrofit projects can have excellent pack periods, our recent embedded network conversion completed at Apollo Quay Apartments in Mandurah is on track to achieve a payback period of only 1.3 years.
Two key benefits of an embedded network within a Strata complex are the opportunity to bulk purchase cheaper electricity and install solar PV and batteries which are critical to reaching net zero carbon and improving a NABERS Apartment building rating.
Check out the article on how the DeHavilland Apartment building achieved WA's first 6 Star NABERS Apartment Building rating at no upfront cost while saving 30% on electricity bills.
Lower cost electricity from a bundled or unbundled tariff can be more than 25% cheaper than the Synergy A1 tariff. In WA if you're consuming more than $8,000 a year or 50 Megawatts of electricity per annum, you can choose your own electricity retailer. Our procurement processes have enabled millions in savings for clients under our management and prevented electricity retailers and brokers from taking advantage.
Element47's core expertise with energy management systems has enabled us to start to deploy some of the most cost effective advanced sub-meter installations in Australia. Our turnkey solutions enable 5 minute interval peer-to-peer (P2P) trading with our turnkey Power Ledger solution.
Users within our embedded networks can access their energy consumption from a simple dashboard of the part 2 months personal and community perspective including helpful tips to save costs and carbon emissions.
Users can also take a peek at their near real time grid and solar consumption. Users can then choose to use energy when it's cheaper or solar energy is more available.
Our sub-meter reading and billing can support our strata clients through our integrations into their in-house strata management software platforms. We provide customised integrations suited for direct input into most software.
Our embedded network design and commissioning procedures are NABERS compliant and enable us to minimise our client's critical unmetered losses during the construction, handover, commissioning, and contract phases. We aim to facilitate a seamless transition from direct Synergy bills to the embedded network and the benefits of low cost, low carbon energy.
If you're curious to know what savings an embedded network, solar PV, and batteries can get you? Get in touch with Element47 today for a no obligation chat today!
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