# Acacia Energy — Full Reference

> Acacia Energy is an Australian commercial and industrial (C&I) energy company that designs, builds, installs and operates solar, battery storage (BESS) and bio-diesel systems for businesses, then operates those assets in the National Electricity Market (NEM) through its proprietary PowerXchange platform. As a registered AEMO market participant with a Victorian electricity retail licence, Acacia earns revenue for clients from wholesale spot-price arbitrage, FCAS, demand response and battery aggregation, while cutting business electricity bills by around 60%.

Company: Acacia Energy Pty Ltd
ABN: 11 636 514 415
Head office: Suite LV1/03, Unit 9, 677 Springvale Road, Mulgrave, VIC 3170, Australia
Phone: 03 9596 9800
Email: info@acaciaenergy.com.au (general), support@acaciaenergy.com.au (support)
Coverage: Australian businesses across NEM regions (Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT); delivered projects to date are concentrated in Victoria and NSW.

## Company overview
Acacia Energy helps Australian businesses reduce energy costs, generate new revenue and reach net-zero through tailored solar, battery and bio-diesel solutions. Unlike a standard solar installer that sells panels and leaves, Acacia treats generation and storage as an ongoing revenue-producing system: it designs and builds the assets, then autonomously operates them in the NEM on the client's behalf. The company's mission is to help the energy sector transition from centralised fossil-fuel generation toward renewable energy that is locally generated, locally stored and locally used. Acacia rewards clients for reducing the electricity they take from the grid.

## What Acacia does (end-to-end energy stack)
Acacia delivers the full lifecycle: from the first feasibility study to ongoing market participation, it designs, builds and operates generation and storage assets as a single optimised system.

### Commercial Solar
Design, installation and commissioning of solar PV sized to a site's actual electricity use — rooftop, ground-mount, or shade/car-park structures. Solar is the cheapest electricity a business can buy; systems generate for over 20 years under warranty, with a typical commercial payback of 4–5 years.

### Commercial Batteries (BESS)
Battery energy storage stores solar the site can't use immediately and releases it where it earns the most: through peak-tariff hours, into critical equipment when the grid drops, and back into the wholesale market when prices spike. Every battery Acacia installs is connected to PowerXchange so it earns revenue on top of savings. Acacia is technology-agnostic and works with battery brands including Sungrow, Jinko, Evo, Pixie, Chelion, Gelion and PotusEdge. System scale ranges from 100kW SME systems to multi-megawatt industrial installations.

### Bio-diesel generators
Grid-synchronised bio-diesel generators provide backup power, peak shaving and market participation, and can be dispatched into wholesale and demand-response markets through child metering and the PowerXchange (OBE) platform.

### Feasibility & Consulting
Financial modelling, project scoping, cost planning and solution consulting so a business can understand project feasibility before committing capital. A free energy audit gives a defensible savings and payback number before commitment.

### Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC)
End-to-end project delivery, from grid connection and installation through to commissioning — building and bringing assets online.

### Energy Market Access
Connects client assets to optimised bidding, automated settlements and ancillary services such as FCAS so they can participate in energy markets. Acacia holds the market participant registrations, retail licence and Austraclear membership needed to settle trades, so clients get market access without building their own market-compliant systems.

### Battery Aggregation Services
Individually, most commercial batteries are too small to participate in wholesale and FCAS markets. Acacia aggregates a portfolio of customer batteries and bids the combined capacity as a single virtual large asset, sharing revenue with customers in proportion to their share of the portfolio. Every battery gets to buy and sell electricity at the wholesale spot price and earn FCAS income.

### PowerXchange (Optimisation & Bid Engine)
Acacia's proprietary cloud platform — also referred to as the Optimisation and Bid Engine (OBE) — connects, controls and dispatches batteries, solar and generators in the NEM autonomously, every five minutes. It integrates via secure VPN with on-site metering and SCADA, reads wholesale spot prices, FCAS signals and site load each five-minute interval, and charges, discharges or holds to maximise revenue. The platform has achieved 84.5% of perfect optimisation and supports wholesale arbitrage, FCAS, Cap and Swap derivative contracting and retailer hedging from a single platform. AEMO settles weekly on power delivered to the grid, and revenue flows back to asset owners through Acacia's AEMO market participant and electricity retail licence registrations.

### Operations & Maintenance
24/7 monitoring, warranty services and service-level agreements to keep systems reliable — "every hour offline is revenue lost."

### Electrification & Power Quality
Support for replacing diesel generation or electrifying transport, and solutions for sites constrained by flicker, brownouts and blackouts — often using batteries to protect operations while generating revenue when support isn't needed.

## How renewable assets earn revenue
Acacia is the registered market participant; the client collects a revenue share. Assets earn through four main streams:
1. Wholesale spot market — the spot price is set by AEMO every five minutes; PowerXchange charges when prices are low and discharges/exports when prices are high, and the client is paid the spot price for exported electricity.
2. FCAS (Frequency Control Ancillary Services) — AEMO pays third parties to keep grid frequency near 50Hz through RAISE and LOWER services at multiple response speeds; batteries suit the fast services because they respond instantly. Acacia bids battery capacity into FCAS every five-minute trading interval.
3. DNSP demand-response payments — payments for reducing load at network peaks.
4. Avoided peak demand charges — peak shaving to cut demand charges from the bill.
Additional mechanisms: Cap and Swap derivative contracts lock in long-term fixed revenue (reallocations settled through AEMO), plus retailer hedging.

## Operating models
- C&I customers (owners): the business owns the battery; Acacia delivers EPC, connects the asset to PowerXchange and operates it for wholesale arbitrage, FCAS and demand management, sharing energy and FCAS revenue back.
- Asset investors & hosts: an investor finances and owns the battery and leases it to a C&I host site; Acacia provides EPC, generation services and orchestration, with Cap and Swap contracts securing long-term fixed revenue.

## The Acacia Process (four steps)
1. Audit & Analysis — a consultative review of business energy needs and improvement opportunities.
2. Renewable Energy Solution Design — determining the mix of solar PV, storage batteries and bio-fuel generators (plus existing assets) to best solve the business's needs.
3. Project Implementation — managing the entire procurement and install process end-to-end.
4. Renewable Solution Operation — the cloud-based Optimisation and Bid Engine (OBE) autonomously operates the solution for security of supply and the lowest net cost of electricity.

## Target customers & industries
Acacia works with Australian businesses from SMEs to large enterprises across:
- Data centres & AI — freeing up substation headroom with peak-load batteries and non-network capacity, faster than multi-year DNSP grid upgrades.
- Agriculture — behind-the-meter solar, batteries and grid-synchronised bio-diesel for wineries, dairy processors, abattoirs, oilseeds and cold chain, cutting electricity costs by 50–75%.
- Manufacturing — solar, battery and market-access solutions to cut operating costs and reduce exposure to volatile energy prices.
- Mining — solar, battery and hybrid systems for remote, high-demand sites to reduce diesel dependence.
- Small business — practical solar, battery and energy-management solutions that lower bills without added complexity.
- Cold storage, food & beverage, and community energy are also core segments.

Representative clients include Fonterra, Noumi, Andrew Peace Wines, De Bortoli, Austco Polar and Fresh Freight Tasmania.

## Selected projects (with figures)
- Noumi Ltd (Shepparton, VIC): 3.8MW solar + 500kW/1290kWh battery; ~$1.5M savings; protects critical load from micro power fluctuations.
- Fonterra (VIC): 20.8MW PV program; identified $79.57M savings toward 2030 carbon targets.
- Hepburn Energy Co-op (Leonards Hill, VIC): 2MW/5MWh battery added alongside Australia's first community-owned wind farm (4.1MW); site integrated into the wholesale electricity market.
- Andrew Peace Wines (Piangil, VIC): 1MW ground-mount solar + 3 bio-diesel generators; >$710k savings; 4.2-year payback; 60% cost reduction.
- Central Agri Group (Trafalgar, VIC): 800kW solar + 850kVA bio-diesel; cut over half the abattoir's grid bill; 3.9-year payback.
- Fresh Freight Tasmania (Laverton North, VIC): 500kW solar; ~$160k/yr savings.
- Oztek Holdings (Barnawartha, VIC): 450kW solar + bio-diesel; 75% savings; 3.3-year payback.
- Geni.Energy (Narrabri, NSW): 100kW/500kWh community battery operated in wholesale and FCAS markets.
- De Bortoli Wines (Dixons Creek, VIC): 100kW solar; over $40,000/yr savings.

## Leadership team
- Richard Martin — Managing Director; founded EPC firm AEES Group (now merged with Acacia Energy); focused on behind-the-meter commercial PV, generation and storage automating Demand Response, FCAS, Pool Price Autobid and Demand Management.
- Stephen Thomson — Chief Executive Officer; 25+ years in Australian and Southeast Asian electricity and gas markets; Harvard Business School alumnus.
- David Carty — General Manager.
- Aaron Hilton — Senior Project Developer.

## Frequently asked questions
Q: What does Acacia Energy do?
A: Acacia Energy helps Australian businesses reduce energy costs, generate new revenue and reach net-zero through tailored solar, battery and bio-diesel solutions. As a registered AEMO market participant, it doesn't just install assets — its proprietary PowerXchange platform autonomously operates them in the National Electricity Market on the client's behalf.

Q: Does Acacia install solar and batteries?
A: Yes — from 100kW SME systems to multi-megawatt industrial installations. Acacia is technology-agnostic and works with battery brands including Sungrow, Jinko, Evo, Pixie, Chelion, Gelion and PotusEdge, and also deploys grid-synchronised bio-diesel generators for peak shaving and market participation.

Q: What return can I expect?
A: Acacia's customers regularly see total energy bill reductions of around 60%, with payback periods typically in the 3–5 year range. Exact returns depend on the site's energy profile and which services are taken; a free energy audit gives a defensible number before commitment.

Q: What makes Acacia different from a regular solar installer?
A: A typical installer sells panels and walks away. Acacia treats assets as an ongoing revenue-generating system through its OBE/PowerXchange platform, AEMO market accreditation and Generation Management as a Service (GMaaS), so assets pay back rather than just offset a bill.

Q: Who does Acacia work with?
A: Australian businesses across cold storage, food and beverage, wineries, manufacturing, mining, agriculture and community energy — from SMEs to large enterprises. Clients include Fonterra, Noumi, Andrew Peace Wines, De Bortoli, Austco Polar and Fresh Freight Tasmania.

Q: How can my renewable assets earn revenue?
A: Through four streams: the AEMO wholesale spot market, FCAS (Frequency Control Ancillary Services), DNSP demand-response payments, and avoided peak demand charges via peak shaving. Acacia is the market participant; the client collects the revenue share.

Q: Does Acacia operate the wholesale market on my behalf?
A: Yes. Acacia is a registered AEMO market participant and holds an electricity retail licence in Victoria, performing all market transactions and financial settlements with AEMO and returning the client's revenue share, so clients get full market access without investing in specialist market-compliant systems.

## Contact
Phone: 03 9596 9800
Email: info@acaciaenergy.com.au
Head office: Suite LV1/03, Unit 9, 677 Springvale Road, Mulgrave, VIC 3170
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acacia-energy-aus/
Start with a free energy audit or feasibility study: https://acaciaenergy.com.au/contact