Many people are initially daunted by the real variety of utility services on offer. These typically range from fully-fledged corporate deals encompassing all of the individual utilities strands – gas, water, telephony, and communications – to more bespoke products like network embedding or provision of specific high-demand utilities to more niche industry sectors, making it easy to see why wading through the sea of offers can be something of a tricky task to say the least.
Finding the right utility services for a particular project in Australiacan be a tricky business for anyone, but for those of us new to the energy market or just taking our first step into the world of property development, can easily be forgiven for feeling completely lost at sea.
Here, we’ll take a look at some of the most common utility services on offer in Australia, with the aim of helping first time buyers decide just what it is they really need from their supplier.
Embedded electricity networks
Embedded electricity networks are fast becoming one of the favoured utility choices for large scale developers and property builders, hailed for their supposed reliability, cost effectiveness and simplification of on-site energy management. Essentially an embedded network acts as a private extension of the national grid, feeding a specified area of single flats, shops or other spaces with electricity through a substation that receives cut-cost wholesale energy.
Private telecoms networks
Private telecoms networks are one of the veritable ‘must have’ utilities packages for large scale commercial centres and absolutely essential to the smooth running of on-site businesses. But, with technology moving faster than ever, potential buyers should look out for all the mod-cons and make sure they get a coms package featuring things like high-speed fibre network cables and remote system monitoring. These will essentially help future-proof internal communications networks and ensure no major overhauls of in-built utilities will be required in the decades to come.
Building and Facilities Management
This types of utilities servicing will vary greatly depending on the building site or managed complex in question, and many of the larger firms in Australia now offer focussed management packages for offices, residential flats and commercial spaces alike. These have been particularly popular with site owners concerned about the reliability and efficiency of their utilities installations; those looking to minimize downtime and maximize overall on-site efficiency.
Metering
Inextricably linked in many ways to embedded network services, metering further allows landlords to capitalise on extra utilities revenue streams by isolating usage counts in various pockets of a private grid. For example, with metering services it’s possible to count how much electricity or gas individual tenants are using, making it much easier to forward separate invoices and bills.
