Hello Brendan, welcome to the forum.
It'll be interesting to get your input here with your background with electrical and ENS Energy (??).
If that is your consultancy, 18 years in the energy industry would see some great experience under your belt.
As this thread has a business aspect, it's not likely many here will have your depth of knowledge.
For what it's worth from my point of view owning a small manufacturing biz for 25 years, many in small business can get as much out of on site renewables as residential does.
PV and battery rebates can be received for both commercial and residential.
All you need is the roof space, and while most stand alone premises usually have this, some offices / shops in larger commercial building settings might not.
Most small office stand alone locations have roof space for PV and can also take up battery advantages, though most small biz might not have a need to work outside solar production hours and can do without a battery in the mix . . . but then, a battery in winter is also great to have for anyone with solar . . . charge from the grid at lowest tariff time for daytime use.
Personally, if you are talking industry / manufacturing, business with heavy power use, then you can negate a certain amount of power bills with some thought, but if you're paying thousands or even $10's or thousands a quarter in power bills, it's probably a case to first look a the best discounted plan for that usage, and after consideration accept it might not be viable to get the needed PV in place, $ or roof space.
We have 2 electric kilns in our business, our own metering in our small complex, and for maybe 15 years have virtually been running night shift for off peak rates.
Power pricing just ramped up so much from around 2010, after privatisation in 1999.
We have a separate home office, and never go in to run the kilns or other power use work during the day, not lighting or even a fridge !
With workshop skylights we have ample light to go in during the day as needed, very spasmodic and short stays, open kilns to cool, do any prep work, set up kilns, and set timers for 9:05pm for operation, just to be sure 😉
There are probably ways strata type biz could use PV and batteries, embedded networks etc, I see big shopping centres filling their roofs, carpark shade, not sure if they are selling to the tenants with some sort of deal going on with cheaper power, but it's good to see commercial site renewables happening more.
One thing for sure, every single residence or business out there is totally different in their needs, solutions, and options.
Not just site / usage specific factors, but local DNSP structure of tariffs, retailer offerings, constant changes to plans and offers, it's a complicated, ongoing process to work through for optimal economic power supply for a home or business.
What is your main focus, commercial / industrial / small premises projects ? Or a mix ?
