Redback Technologies focuses on remote communities

Redback Technologies will partner with Indigenous renewable technology company AllGrid Energy to address the energy reliability access issues facing Australia’s remote communities.

Under the partnership, AllGrid will utilise Redback’s core hardware and software technologies with a focus on adapting the suite for utilisation in remote applications. AllGrid will build additional functionality in conjunction with Redback for integration of water and related bio systems required for increasing quality of life for remote community inhabitants. 

The partnership initiated when Redback Technologies Managing Director Philip Livingston and AllGrid Energy CEO Ray Pratt were presenting at a recent storage summit at Parliament House. Each company’s value proposition and goals aligned, and both were dedicated to their respective products. The partnership was a natural fit.

AllGrid Energy partners with remote and Indigenous communities implementing what it calls ‘The Oasis Strategy’, an oasis being a source of abundance in a desert of depletion. AllGrid strives to facilitate a return to self-sufficiency and make a true difference in these communities.

Pratt points out that the AllGrid team was happy not to be reinventing the wheel.

“Redback’s inverter and software technology provide an intelligent platform for the use of storage in the home. This melds perfectly with AllGrid’s systems, which are ideally suited for the work we are doing in remote areas,” said Pratt.

“Bringing the two together will allow the creation of a technologically superior product for our customers.

“Australia is a vast continent and many Indigenous people live in remote and regional areas. The cost of transmitting energy through wires that span thousands of kilometres is enormous and this means that these communities are often compromised in their power supplies and are experiencing real energy poverty,” he said.

Redback’s proprietary cloud-enabled intelligent system for analytics and remote control, the Ouija Board, uses machine learning to gather intelligence over time, learning from user preferences as well as drawing data from external factors like the weather.

Livingston believes that software is the secret to solar energy management and the partnership with AllGrid will benefit those who are in most need of the companies’ collective solutions.

“The idea is to use smart software to maximise the energy produced,” Livingston said.

“We are both young and emerging companies who are passionate and determined to reach the same vision of a renewable energy future. Our partnership and commitment to collaboration gives us agility and resilience in this new and exciting market.”

Pratt believes in the potential for self-sufficiency delivered by renewables.

“Although we are a wealthy first-world country, in many remote communities and areas of significant Indigenous population, people are living in third-world conditions. Across the world, it is being increasingly recognised that renewable technologies have the potential to facilitate self-sufficiency.

“Community engagement is essential to the success of our projects. Delivering holistic outcomes through culturally appropriate methods and education to ensure long-term solutions, beyond just technical ones, is our priority,” he said.