Harbourside Cold Stores avoids energy price spikes with demand response
smart energy strategy to save
Case study overview
Flow Power is helping Harbourside Cold Stores optimise its energy use with a flexible, wholesale linked contract and demand response strategy.
Avoiding high price events helps cut operational costs and supports the local grid during periods of demand strain.
Keeping cool and cutting costs
Founded in 1989, Harbourside Cold Stores provides refrigerated warehousing and logistics services to North Queensland.
With 2 sites in Townsville and Cairns to power, Harbourside Cold Stores made the switch to Flow Power, looking to optimise efficiency for its energy intensive operations.
From fixed rates to flexible pricing
Energy is one of the most significant operational costs for the cold storage sector, so finding the right contract is key.
Harbourside Cold Stores previously engaged brokers and several other retailers in search of a suitable energy solution, eventually switching from fixed rates to a flexible contract with Flow Power.
Choosing a Power Active contract with Flow Power rewards Harbourside Cold Stores for using cheaper, cleaner energy during daytime hours and avoiding high price spikes through demand response.
“We’re really happy with how Flow Power’s helped us. They’re proactive, knowledgeable, easy to deal with and they’ve been really helpful from the start.”
Robert Hall – General Manager, Harbourside Cold Stores
How does Flow Power help Harbourside Cold Stores save?
Participating in demand response during high price events has helped cut energy costs across the 2 sites.
Harbourside Cold Stores’ Townsville facility is an older mechanical site which requires some manual intervention, but the Cairns site has been fitted with an automated backup generator to reduce operational interruptions when energy events occur.
By taking part in demand response across its 2 sites, Harbourside Cold Stores is improving its monthly Price Efficiency Adjustment (PEA).
The PEA is designed to incentivise users to switch energy intensive operations to low-price energy periods on the wholesale market, which typically align with times when the fuel mix in the grid is more renewable.
Having a dedicated energy specialist to support your business is essential for large energy users. We assign all C&I customers a dedicated account manager, in their state.
Whether it’s questions about billing, or expert assistance during an energy event, when you call Flow Power, you’re always connected to a real person.
Optimising operations with Energy Ready
To maximise the benefits of its wholesale-linked contract, Harbourside Cold Stores opted in for Flow Power’s engineering advisory service, Energy Ready.
Through this service, Harbourside Cold Stores learned how to participate in demand response, avoiding high price events and supporting the stability of the local network.
“It’s about targeting your efforts where it’ll produce the most value,” Robert Hall says, “the Energy Ready team has been proactively helping us reduce our consumption at the right times.”
Thanks to the demand response strategy, and the efforts of onsite staff, Harbourside Cold Stores has seen sizeable cost savings through high price avoidance with demand response. The graph below shows an example of successful demand response during a high price event in 2024.
The energy retailer of choice for
Australian cold stores
Flow Power is proud to be a member of the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association (RWTA), helping Australian cold stores optimise energy use and cut operational costs.
“I’ve always been a big advocate for industry groups like RWTA, and businesses like ours have to work together,” says Robert Hall.
“Whenever I speak to someone dealing with power issues, I always advocate for Flow Power, because they’re great to work with. The fact that Flow Power would help us actively reduce our bill was unexpected but very much appreciated.”
Speak to Flow Power’s energy specialists today.
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