12 Nov 2018
A real solution to rising energy costs
Energy. It was the catalyst to bring down a Prime Minister, energy and carbon policy continue to divide our politicians and all the while, consumers fear their bills as the warmer months approach. There’s no escaping the negative fallout of this hot button issue.
But at Frasers Property Australia, we’re taking a positive view on energy. Energy has been identified as a new business growth opportunity as well as a key competitive advantage for us from a customer service perspective, particularly in terms of being able to offer cheaper and greener power.
We recently established Real Utilities as a stand-alone business and a licenced Australian energy retailer, operating under the Frasers Property Australia umbrella.
Real Utilities owns and manages energy infrastructure within select Frasers Property developments and uses a combination of renewable energy, often generated through solar on the sites of our masterplanned communities, as well as certified carbon offsets to provide carbon neutral energy to its customers.
This energy is distributed and sold by Real Utilities to the residents and businesses in the communities we create.
The cost of energy to our customers is cheaper – as at July 2018 the price of energy provided by Real Utilities at our first site in Sydney was 28% cheaper than the average standard tariff reported by the big three energy retailers. (Energy retailers are required to publish their rates at www.energymadeeasy.gov.au).
In our view, Real Utilities represents the next frontier in holistic community development. It gives us the capacity to provide a real cost-of-living benefit to our customers and create a more robust and holistic suite of infrastructure and services for the people who live in our communities.
The cost of energy is something our customers are concerned about. Real Utilities directly addresses this concern in a way that makes financial sense for them and commercial sense for us.
Residents of Tailor’s Walk, our community in Sydney’s Botany, were the first to have electricity provided by Real Utilities. Today, Real Utilities has more than 300 customers at Tailor’s Walk, with 100% of residents having signed up to Real Utilities as their energy provider.
Residents of our developments at Ed.Square in Sydney, and Burwood Brickworks in Melbourne, will also have the option of accessing clean, cheaper energy from Real Utilities.
For Frasers Property to progress Real Utilities to the point at which it became established as a business in its own right, the model had to satisfy three key criteria. It had to show benefits to our customers, to our business, and in an environmental sustainability sense.
We were able to show benefits in these three key areas and demonstrate that Real Utilities can operate as a profitable commercial entity.
Real Utilities represents the next chapter in our progressive approach to energy. It follows our innovations including Central Park’s central thermal plant, Fairwater’s geothermal heating and cooling technology, and the large-scale solar PV installations that are a feature of our industrial business.
Real Utilities leverages from a business standpoint the energy infrastructure we have been integrating in our developments anyway. We saw an opportunity to add value to our customers by taking on the role of energy provider to deliver cheaper and greener energy.
Our goal for Real Utilities is to use 100% renewable energy by 2023.
It’s a goal closely aligned with our commitment to be a carbon positive business by 2028, as outlined in Frasers Property Australia’s A Different Way sustainability strategy. And we’re well on our way.
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Visit the Real Utilities’ customer portal here.
We acknowledge and thank our collaborators
Agility CIS
PLUS ES
Herbert Smith Freehills
Compliance Quarter
Aeris