CASE STUDY: Tonsley Innovation District
Tonsley is a globally recognised, award winning innovation hub. This is where many of the country’s most forward-thinking and ground-breaking businesses have established themselves, including AZZO. Therefore, we are extremely proud to be involved in helping Tonsley establish one of Australia’s largest rooftop solar energy management systems.
From its days as a car manufacturing site, Tonsley has transformed itself into one of the country’s largest and most successful business innovation hubs – a transformation that is showing no signs of slowing. Many businesses that are pushing the boundaries of technology are taking up residence at Tonsley.
No surprise then, this is where AZZO has based its main operation. And even less surprising, we have been heavily involved in the precinct’s power management.
THE CHALLENGE
There were a number of key energy objectives established by Renewal SA, the Government department in overall charge of Tonsley. This is an ‘innovation hub’, and required an ‘innovative’ solution to its power usage.
Given the sheer scale of the Tonsley buildings’ roof coverage, a solar-based solution was very quickly agreed on with SA Power Networks. However, managing the power distribution to a huge range of business tenancies, each with a variety of energy requirements, needed all of AZZO’s experience in Energy Management, Power Automation, Electrical Engineering and Digital Systems – our four core competencies.
THE SOLUTION
At Tonsley, AZZO has helped rollout one of the largest rooftop solar projects in the country. This includes providing the interfacing that allows the distribution service network provider to communicate to the solar system. SA Power Networks are able to request various active power setpoints – and manage the load and the solar output.
Being able to deliver the project here at Tonsley, we were able to do the software development on site, test it on site and roll it out – all within the complex where AZZO is based. Essentially, we’ve been able to bring technology together on our own doorstep.
RESULTS
As Tonsley has developed, many new businesses have come into the precinct – and that’s what the precinct is all about – attracting new tenancies.
AZZO is proud to be part of that development. We’ve helped to bring all the monitoring of these different businesses into one central system.
With Tonsley now exporting power to the grid, one of the largest costs for a new venture looking to move into hub has been dramatically reduced.
