The Virtual Energy Network now operating at the Port of Brisbane provides all participants with solar power generated on site, reducing power bills and limiting emissions. Power generated by solar panels at the port is shared virtually across the network of port tenants by a complex online platform matching real-time power use and power generation data. Winner of the Australian Financial Review’s Sustainability Leaders’ Award in the logistics and transport category, the port’s VEN now supplies virtual power to the Port of Brisbane company itself along with participating port tenants.
Port of Brisbane Head of Sustainability Craig Wilson says more of the port’s 80 or so tenants, (often called customers), are keen to join.
“We opened up the Virtual Energy Network to third-party customers in July last year, and there’s a process of going to all our customers, educating them on what the Virtual Energy Network is, gauging their interest, and then working with them to bring them into the Virtual Energy Network,” he says. “We’ve had 11 join in the last 12 months.”
The Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd, landlord of the private port, has already invested about $5 million in rooftop and ground-mounted solar and energy storage battery systems, with more planned.
The Virtual Energy Network (VEN) now supplies Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd with more than 20 per cent of its total power consumption, which covers most of the company’s daytime power use. “We’ve pretty much met our our daytime consumption with renewables,” Wilson says.
The VEN platform uses smart meter data across all participating sites to measure solar generation and consumption at 30-minute intervals. Actual power is not shared, rather the data across sites is reconciled to determine ongoing costs and benefits.
As well as leasing facilities, the Port of Brisbane company has on-site operations across the port, including the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal, the multimodal terminal (where containers arrive and depart by rail), a marine operations base and several managed and used office facilities.
The company also has over 80 lease-holders on-site at the port; stevedoring companies and companies with port-related activity. Operations run 24 hours a day, seven days a week and include transporting cargo in and out of the port, along with support storage operations.
The Port of Brisbane company has retained certain rights over warehouses constructed on-site, so it can install solar panels on suitable roofs and other structures. In line with the company’s energy transition plan and net zero targets, solar panels continue to be installed on sites where it is feasible. “The warehouses aren’t big users of electricity, but they have a lot of capacity for solar installation,” Wilson says.
Some leaseholder sites, though, are unsuitable for solar power generation, a situation which led to the plan for the Virtual Energy Network. “How do we reduce emissions at those sites?” Wilson says. “That’s how we came up with the concept of the Virtual Energy Network, which allows us to share the renewable energy we’re generating at one site with with another site that potentially doesn’t have that opportunity.”
The big power consumers at the port have the electrical infrastructure needed to move containers or load and unload bulk goods, and their facilities often don’t have the space for solar power generation, Wilson says.
Warehouses, though, have large roofs that work well for solar assets, and although they do not consume much power, warehouse users also want to join the VEN because they see the benefits of adding local renewable power in their energy mix. The alternative is sending solar power to the grid to earn a low tariff. Participants can also share energy generated by the VEN at their sites outside the port.
The Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd has recently installed 2.3 megawatt hours of battery energy storage system (BESS), so power can be provided in the evening and at night. Wilson expects the company will increase battery storage over time, as well as installing further solar power generation.
The company’s infrastructure team is working with network provider Energy Queensland to identify the best locations for the systems in order to have minimal impact on the broader electricity network.
At times of inadequate solar power (at night and on overcast days) the port automatically switches to the grid, Wilson says. “Our partnership with Momentum Energy is really important to provide a backstop for energy when local supply isn’t there to meet the demand.”