Didn’t 2022 just start? Now 2023 is just around the corner!

Last year felt like a strong westerly put some wind in our sails after sitting in the doldrums for two years. We’ve come racing out of Covid lockdowns and the uncertainty that government restrictions put on business – we well and truly opened up. Hoo-ray!

Covid had an interesting effect. I believe that in some obscure way, businesses realised that they have a responsibility to be a broader influence i.e. we’re all in it together v2.0. Not just in health, but in our environment.

Enter the chaos of electricity supply issues in mid-2022 driving costs up on the wholesale market, which accelerated business’ interest in energy independence and price mitigation. And whilst it’s very regrettable for business operating costs it’s unfortunately unlikely that we have seen the full effect of this on business retail energy prices. Fortunately, this is where solar and solar+battery really start to make sense for every business in Australia.

Looking forward: 2023 is going to be our biggest year yet. I want to install a lot of solar. And a lot more storage!

Smart has the best team in the market. We have a range of new innovations to help our customers and we are working with the best companies across Australia. We will be stretched as we grow, but we will continue to work hard and solve problems and improve our world.

And because Smart’s people are the best and they are our biggest point of difference, we wanted to end this year by hearing a lot more from them . . .

Max Stenning

Executive General Manager

2022 has been yet another great year for the business. We closed out FY22 with a fast run to the finish line exceeding targets month after month. Given the momentum built during the back half of FY22, we set some hefty targets for FY23 which motivated the team even further to keep pushing.

Year-to-date targets across the board are being exceeded. Sales are up 25% on target year to date and 48% on this time last year. Revenue and operating profit are on a similar trajectory both up 10% and 16% above target respectively. The second half of the year looks even more exciting with the kicking off of a number of large projects that will accelerate our results and have us delivering some of the most groundbreaking solutions to clients.

Some of these projects include not just solar, but large-scale storage, bio-diesel generators, waste-to-energy solutions, demand response and FCAS, solar car shades and integrated electric vehicle charging stations. Smart continues to build its expertise in areas much wider than solar so it can be a true energy partner for its customers' long term. Customers implementing these technologies with Smart are; Wattyl, Real Utilities, Bunnings, Officeworks, AstraZeneca, Southern Steel, Bridgestone, Sanofi, Arnotts, KFC, ProviCo, Hilton Foods and many others. These businesses are leading from the front on their sustainability goals and we appreciate being on the journey with them.

With respect to the market, high energy prices and corporate ESG strategies are driving greater demand for solar and alternative energy solutions. We are seeing payback periods for solar at the lowest they have ever been and we are able to offer PPA rates to clients at more than 50% below their retail rates. Although we believe energy prices will once again soften over the coming years, businesses who have sat on the fence about solar are now making decisions to implement solar due to superior OPEX savings and vastly improved business cases.

We look forward to finishing the financial year strong and assisting as many businesses as we can in saving on their electricity spending.

Lucas Rathmanner

Chief Operating Officer

What an amazing year for the Australian commercial solar industry and Smart Commercial Solar! In every metric measured, each quarter has been bigger than the last. Installs completed for the 2022 calendar year will surpass 33 MWp of solar and 3.5 MWh of battery with a further 24 MWp and 8.6 MWh respectively under contract and in various phases of detailed design and construction. This puts us in a fantastic position going into 2023 with a high level of work in hand which has enabled us to grow the team sustainably throughout the year.

Splitting the Projects team into two dedicated groups has been critical in ensuring we are able to continue to deliver the industry's best quality service to our customers while managing the growth in the volume of work - with more experienced project managers and engineers able to focus their attention on larger projects and allowing the up and comers to gain exposure to a high volume of projects to really bed in their skills. 

It has been an absolute joy to see the total full-time projects staff grow from 12 to 18 including 2 new PMs, an engineer, 2 project coordinators and procurement and it has been just as great a joy seeing each one of these people grow in ability and confidence over the year and supporting each other through the various challenges.

Coming into 2023 hot with a great team, great projects, and great service – bring it on!

Ari Nikolopoulos

Head of Service

2022 has been massive. We surpassed 1000 systems and over 100 MW of assets under management for our solar fleet this year.

We’ve seen increasing interest and growth in our service product seemingly due to the increasing electricity costs, people are more sensitive to their sources of energy and would like to ensure their solar system is saving them the most money possible. Subsequently, with more interest, we have had to refine the existing solution where we have catered to different customers based on specific site requirements.

As the growth of Service sales improves, we are able to invest in our team and innovation. As a result, we have expanded the team and hired a business administration person, electrical engineer and data scientist in the Service team operations where they will ensure the fleet is performing optimally and any fixes are handled swiftly. 

As part of our innovation, we are currently committing a lot of time to our data analytics and performance monitoring as we develop the “Doctor” - our own in-house performance monitoring algorithm which takes in multiple data sources so we can ensure our systems are performing optimally and any faults are picked up within 5 minutes of them occurring. In addition to this, we are developing new customer dashboards so we can provide our customers with as much information about not only their solar but their whole site. The aim is to give them the data to hold us accountable but also for them to make more informed decisions in regard to how they use their energy onsite. The data we are providing should give them an indication of the sites’ usage and load profile, solar savings, environmental impact, carbon neutral standing and any potential for system expansions and storage. 

In 2023 we continue to look at how we can bring more value to our customers through other streams. These avenues include demand response, where customers can opt to reduce/ increase their load in response to market signals where they can be rewarded.

The Service team is keen to finish the year by achieving many of our goals, and even keener to start the new year bringing enhanced value to our customers and hitting new strides as a team.

Get the latest news and find out what’s happening in the commercial solar space at Smart Insights.