EnergyAustralia (EA) and Planet Ark Power (PAP) today announced they would partner to provide safe, reliable, and affordable smart energy charging solutions for the Australian transport industry.

This will see electrification projects EA undertakes with PAP will have on-site solar and battery and charging, enabled by PAP’s eleXsys energy management platform. The eleXsys platform will help reduce grid connection costs and maximise the value of the solar, battery and charging energy. By working jointly together, EA and PAP can support the transport industry’s electrification by reducing grid connection complexities, lowering demand charges, achieving faster charging.

EnergyAustralia’s Head of NextGen Jack Kotlyar, said: “We want to be the one place our customers can come for all their electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and decarbonisation requirements. Our partnership with PAP will help ensure customers get an end-to-end charging and energy infrastructure solution that is safe, reliable, and affordable.

“As we support our customers moving from diesel and petrol to electric vehicles through depot charging solutions, we know that often customers have multiple sites in need of charging infrastructure, each requiring its own set of solar, battery and charging set up.

“With Planet Ark Power, EnergyAustralia will optimise the solar to ensure our customers obtain the highest returns whether the solar is going to charger, battery or being exported to the grid. Chargers that are being used for the fleet, can also be opened to the public, providing a new income stream for our customers.”

“One of the biggest challenges for energy network operators transitioning to clean energy is managing fluctuating volatility and grid instability. PAP’s eleXsys technology allows us to stabilise the grid connection to these sites helping us provide ongoing safe and stable energy to our customers, Mr Kotlyar said.

Distributed energy can be one of the most efficient forms of energy generation and storage. PAP’s energy management technology not only assists with voltage regulation but is built to enable microgrids so that other people can share in that renewable energy. Our technology will help EnergyAustralia convert each of these depots into microgrids maximising the use of renewable energy generated and stored.

“We are excited to be part of this journey with EnergyAustralia, as it accelerates the clean energy transformation in transport,” said Peter Newland, CEO, Planet Ark Power.

In June this year, PAP partnered with South Australia’s Commercial Retail Group to launch its first Electric Vehicle Charging HUB at the Pasadena Shopping Centre, to be operational in early 2023, the first of and largest of its kind in the State. The project, worth $3 million, has been partly funded by the South Australian Government as part of its Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Trial.

Andrew Theodore, Director, Smart Infrastructure & Key Accounts, Planet Ark Power, said: “We understand EnergyAustralia has an aim to lead the clean energy transition. Our partnership will help support the transport sector that will increasingly rely on the grid as they transition to zero-emission vehicles. eleXsys, makes it easier for EnergyAustralia to close the loop without expensive network infrastructure upgrades. We are excited to work with EnergyAustralia on projects where they want to achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”

EA has been working on forging partnerships with key solution providers in the electrification and greenification of transport as an integral part of their market expansion strategy.