Case Studies

After years of minimal communication under a previous provider, CJD Equipment’s rooftop solar was underperforming and largely invisible to the business. Industrias now manages the national portfolio, restoring reporting and oversight, working through a backlog of remedial repairs, and advising on what comes next. A national fleet, and a solar portfolio to match CJD Equipment Pty. Ltd. has been distributing construction equipment and trucks across Australia since 1974. The company runs 24 branches nationally and owns the vast majority of the properties it occupies, which makes rooftop solar a straightforward proposition on the sites with the space to carry it. Seven rooftops across six of the largest locations now have PV systems installed. “We own the majority of our properties,” said Timothy Willix, National Fleet and Asset Manager at CJD Equipment. “The six largest branches are where the large roof space is, and that’s why we chose to put the panels on those particular properties.” Tim Willix manages the company’s fleet and its assets nationally. Solar sits inside that remit, alongside everything else, which is precisely why the systems need a partner behind them. Systems in limbo For several years, the portfolio was effectively stranded. CJD Equipment’s original provider ran into difficulty, changed hands, and lost continuity of staff. The reporting stopped with it. “It meant there was no more communication on our systems,”  Willix said. “Once the reports stopped coming through, we didn’t know what our systems were doing or how they were performing.” In the meantime, the systems kept ageing. Modules dropped offline, parts failed, and nobody was watching closely enough to notice. Willix realised that it was going to be important to proactively find a solution, which led to him finding Industrias. An approach, then a partnership After speaking to the Industrias team, the partnership began with a proposal by Industrias to the CJD Equipment’s Financial Controller, offering to take over management of the PV systems. “We said, put a case together and we’ll show you the panels we have,” Willix said. “They seemed like a viable option, so we gave them all the necessary information, and they started managing our systems.” The first phase of the work was corrective. Years of deferred attention had left a substantial remedial list, which the two teams are still working through. “The systems were basically stagnant for so long, there was a lot of remedial work that had to be done,” Willix said. “We’re working through those problems now, and they’ve been reactive to that.” The recovery is already showing up in the numbers. Willix estimates generation and savings have improved by around 30 per cent since Industrias took over, with total energy savings across the sites now tracking at roughly $70,000. Managed remotely, resolved quickly With sites spread from one side of the country to the other, the practical question is how a single asset manager keeps oversight of all of them. The answer is that it happens remotely. “Everything is done remotely, so it’s easy with Industrias,” Willix said. “I can go onto the dashboard and see systems that are underperforming, and then I can approach them directly.” Willix describes the team as consistently proactive. When something needs resolving quickly, he picks up the phone. “Being the fleet and asset manager, I make a call ,” he said. “The problem gets resolved in a timely manner.” That responsiveness extends to feedback on the service itself. When a system glitch produced an avalanche of notifications one morning, the Industrias team identified and acknowledged the issue the same day. “Daniel, Rajeev and the maintenance team are very pro-active,” Willix said. Advice, not just maintenance Willix draws a clear distinction between a supplier and a partner, and puts Industrias in the second category. The team actively looks for ways to improve the sites rather than waiting to be asked, including recommendations on protecting the systems. The clearest example is batteries. When Willix wanted to understand whether storage was viable across the portfolio, he called Industrias first. “I contacted Daniel a few weeks ago to talk about undertaking a cost benefit analysis of installing batteries on these sites,” he said. “Daniel contacted one of his people outside the company, who is now completing that study for us.” For an asset manager carrying a national fleet, that network has value in itself. “I manage the company’s fleet and I manage the company’s assets,” Willix said. “That’s why I delegate this to the professionals ” The next two rooftops The portfolio is still growing. Two new CJD Equipment branches are under construction in Western Australia, one at Albany and one in the state’s midwest, and both will carry PV systems. “They’ll both have PV panels, so they’ll come under their remit as well,” Willix said. “We’ll add them as we go.” For a business that spent years without a clear view of its own generation, that is the measure of the change. The systems are working, the reporting is landing, and the next two sites are already accounted for.