Dobbie Case Study: One Year On
In December 2014, Infinite Energy was selected by Perth foundry, Dobbie, to supply, engineer, install, and commission an on-site Solar PV System. In order to significantly reduce Dobbie’s annual electricity spend, two objections needed to be met:
Objection 1: Undertake a two-stage installation of a 100kW Solar PV system to reduce the number of units purchased from the grid.
Objection 2: Switch electricity providers to Infinite Energy to reduce the amount paid per unit of grid-supplied electricity.
Now more than a year since installation, this blog will explore how Dobbie’s Solar PV System has affected their business, and more importantly, if their total electricity spend has reduced.
Solar Savings
Dobbie’s 100kW system consists of 384 REC Solar Panels, five SMA Sunny Tripower Inverters, and an Integrated Remote Grid & Solar Monitoring Solution.
The graph below shows the annual solar production statistics of Dobbie’s system.
The entire length of each bar illustrates the total production of the Solar PV System; the redsection refers to the amount of solar energy that was utilised (consumed on-site); and the green section refers to the amount of solar that was exported to the grid.
It should be noted that the excess solar energy was only exported to the grid when 100% of Dobbie’s electricity demand was met by solar. (This more than likely occurred on weekends when the site’s demand was lower.)
Over the 12 months shown, Dobbie’s solar system produced a total of 150,800kW or units, 86% of which was able to be utilised on-site. 67% of the total solar production was consumed during peak energy times, displacing a massive amount of electricity which would have previously been bought from the grid at an expensive peak rate.
This, combined with the decreased amount of electricity Dobbie had to buy from the grid at off-peak rates, led to substantial savings of $31,000 for the entire year.
Tariff savings
In addition to solar power, Infinite Energy was chosen to provide Dobbie with grid electricity.
Infinite Energy was able to offer a reduced rate for Dobbie’s grid-supplied electricity, which led to significant savings of $55,400 for the entire year.
Some of these tariff savings can actually be attributed to the solar system. For example, Dobbie’s Solar PV System generates electricity at times when the wholesale electricity price is high. By avoiding these high prices, Infinite Energy is able to provide lower electricity tariffs.
A Solar PV can also assist by producing electricity at times of “network peak”. This can reduce costs to Infinite Energy, which again we are able to pass through via reduced tariffs.
Carbon Offset
The 100kW Solar PV System boasts an annual CO2 reduction of 130 tonnes. This equates to taking 50 cars off the road for an entire year, or planting 480 brand new trees.
Total savings
Combining both solar and tariff savings, Dobbie saved a total of $87,200. This brought their original annual electricity spend of $408,600 down to $321,400, or a total spend reduction of 22%.
While Dobbie would have seen savings choosing to either just install a Solar PV System or only switch to a lower tariff with Infinite Energy, the combination of both created substantially larger savings.
Following the overwhelming success and significant savings generated by their Solar PV System, Dobbie has commissioned Infinite Energy to expand their system by 100kW, which will bring their system up to a total of 200kW.
If you own a business and would like to find out if you could benefit from an Infinite Energy tariff and/or Solar PV Power system, organise an obligation free quote today.
If you would like to learn more about Dobbie and see in-depth analysis of the system’s output, click here to download the corresponding White Paper document.
