Sydney Water is undergoing an EV transition

With the number of electric vehicles in Australia increasing, deep dive into how one Australian water utility is undergoing an EV transition, including challenges faced, solutions implemented, and results achieved.

Sydney Water has worked with Origin 360 EV to convert its Potts Hill pool fleet to 50 electric vehicles (EVs). This marks the largest EV fleet for an Australian water provider and includes the installation of 24 charging stations supported by funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Sydney Water is Australia’s largest water utility. It provides water, wastewater, recycled water and stormwater services to residents and businesses across Greater Sydney. The organisation services millions of people daily by keeping water flowing in all of Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and the Illawarra.

“Sydney Water has set the benchmark for Australian water authorities by embracing the electric vehicle transition with open arms,” said David Helmy, Head of Sales at Origin 360 EV. “We worked closely with their fleet management team to fully electrify their Potts Hill pool fleet, introducing 50 EVs, and helped to plan and build a charging network across multiple metro sites.”

John Little is Sydney Water’s fleet manager. As the project leader, he took a cold call one day, and it turned into a fast-tracked EV transition journey for its passenger vehicle fleet.

“We were fortunate to have Origin leverage state government funding so we could get rebates on the vehicles we purchased,” Little said. “Carbon neutrality was one of the big goals of the project, as it linked to a range of enterprise themes Sydney Water already stands for. It was also financially sustainable, as we could buy vehicles that were the same price as what we had previously budgeted for.”

Why Potts Hill for the EV transition of an Australian water utility?

Potts Hill is in western Sydney. It’s a site owned by Sydney Water, which made the installation of EV chargers much easier. The lack of red tape is different from the head office in Parramatta, where cars are parked in an underground basement.

“The building owner is a little nervous about installing EV chargers in the basement due to the risks involved,” Little said. “At Potts Hill, the car park is in the open air, which gives us easier access in the event of any issues. The reactive issues are easier to manage, particularly with the physical resources in place.”

Rather than starting with the conversion of individually driven vehicles, Little opted to convert Sydney Water’s shared pool fleet to EVs. This helped ensure a wider group of individuals could experience the new vehicles and provide feedback more quickly.

“When it comes to the costs, we lease our fleet on a monthly basis,” Little said. “In financial terms, there has been a single-digit percentage increase in running the fleet. Similarly, upgrading the infrastructure was cost neutral.”

Engaging with the business

An internal survey was conducted to understand the Potts Hill team’s experience with the new vehicles. It showed that 80 per cent of people hadn’t driven or been exposed to an EV before, 80 per cent would do so again, and 70 to 80 per cent found EVs easy to use, easy to operate and easy to plug back in at the end of their journey.

“We intentionally replaced all internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles from our Potts Hill headquarters with EVs and saw instant demand and interaction from multiple users. The reason behind this approach was to garner high rates of advocacy and awareness among our staff who use the pool fleet,” Little said.

Rolling out a big project like this always presents challenges, and Little believes that engagement is key.

“Engage is a key takeaway for me,” he said. “Just because we are doing a lot of research into the field and know about it doesn’t mean everyone else understands it. A great example was when we put our executive into an EV and sent them to Wollongong. I think every single one of them called me to ask if they would get back. The cars have a range of about 400 kilometres, and it was a 195 kilometre round trip. They all got back.”

Helmy is of a similar perspective but looking at it from a broader fleet issue.

“The uptake of passenger EVs is often the first step for organisations transitioning their fleets,” Helmy said. “However, we’re now seeing more businesses exploring how to convert light commercial fleets. With new electric vans and trucks entering the Australian market, we anticipate their emergence – combined with industry-wide decarbonisation strategies – will help drive the next wave of EV adoption in business fleets.”

Managing load and the future

One issue for any fleet manager of an Australian water utility undergoing such an EV transition is ensuring that the energy load is manageable. That’s why Little and Origin rolled out a load management system (LMS) to optimise the available energy capacity and allow the site to stay within its power limit.

“Under our system, the cars are charged to a maximum of 80 per cent of their full charge,” Little said. “More than half of the cars are charged at off-peak times. They will not start charging until after midnight. Users will plug it in at the end of the day and tap their charge card, with the light turning green. They think they’ve done the right thing, but the charging has not started yet. This reduces the strain during peak times as well.”

Origin has provided the Origin 360 EV Charge App to help maximise energy efficiency and reduce charging costs. The positives of all this work have seen Sydney Water consider how to better expand this project to other sites across its network. This requires collaboration with its property team and other sites across the vast Sydney metropolitan area.

“When we remediate or uplift the infrastructure at a site, we ensure that charging points are part of the list, along with new desks and AV equipment,” said Little. “It’s part of the future state infrastructure project, as our property team can be more agile and gain more funding as a result.”

Now that its Potts Hill pool fleet is 100 per cent electric, the next step for Sydney Water is transitioning its take-home fleet and light vehicles, such as utes and vans, which constitute a significant proportion of the business fleet overall.

“At-home charging is one of the next goals for us,” Little said. “Right now, we require everyone to bring the vehicles back to base to recharge. It’s eliminated a major potential headache in the EV implementation strategy. If we start installing chargers at our employee’s homes, there are many variables and risk positions that need to be discussed. Ideally, we’ll start looking at vans that come back to base in the near future as well.”

For more information, visit www.originenergy.com.au/electric-vehicles and www.sydneywater.com.au