Business View Oceania | February 2020

59 60 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA FEBRUARY 2020 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA FEBRUARY 2020 BVO: A Dec. 2019 press release stated: “Yates Electrical Services, through its newly-formed retail arm YES Energy, is using automatic dispatching technology on its 40 MW solar fleet to avoid export during periods of negative prices. German monitoring provider Meteocontrol has introduced its new Remote Power Control feature to Australia, with YES Energy reporting that it has allowed it to “seamlessly” curtail production when required.” Can you elaborate on what this new technology will mean to the business? Yates: “The new RPC technology from Meteocontrol is pretty exciting; enabling us to remotely control a whole fleet of assets based on market price signals, which is important, particularly considering a digital and distributed network is shaping up to be the future of the grid in Australia. The technology is simple to implement, allowing us to seamlessly control the output of our distributed network of solar farms and quickly adapt to price signals from the market. With negative price events becoming increasingly common on the NEM during the middle of the day, the ability to rapidly curtail PV power plant output is becoming a necessity for asset owners. RPC can automatically adjust solar power dispatch in response to wholesale electricity prices on the NEM.” BVO: Looking ahead, what are the future goals for the company? Yates: “The business has had over 100 percent year-on-year growth for the last three years. It’s been a pretty wild ride to grow at that pace and still maintain our culture and key staff in the business. The rate of growth has been challenging and cash flow is always difficult to manage, but we’re fortunate to have a great team that works together and enables the business to grow so rapidly. We offer a turnkey solution from design, procurement and construction right through to the actual retailing of energy. I’m not aware of any other business in South Australia that can offer that full service of a development to the end customer. We’re unique, vertically integrated and continuing to grow at a rapid pace. “Political uncertainty is stifling the industry at the moment. No one seems to be able to make any clear policies to give to the Ministry, so it’s kind of in limbo. There’s no direction from a policy level. As far as change, the market is booming now and I think there will be quite a few years of renewable development to come. Traditionally, Australia has been a very heavily coal-based consumer, but now we’re in a really disruptive phase; shifting away from those central coal generators to a network of distributed renewable energy generating resources across the country. Tie that in with the digital disruption and it’s a really exciting space to be in.” Specialists in fencing for solar farms, substations and other critical infrastructure assets. plcfencing.com.au YATES ELECTR I CAL SERV I CES (YES) PREFERRED VENDORS n GPA www.gpaeng.com.au GPA is a highly experienced consulting engineering group specialising in the design and delivery of renewable energy projects. GPA recognises renewable energies as a vital part of industry and strive to keep at the forefront of developing and emerging technologies. Providing engineering and project delivery services in: • Battery systems • Embedded networks • Hybrid Micro grid systems • Hydrogen • Solar • Waste to Energy • Wind n PLC Fencing Pty Ltd www.plcfencing.com.au