South Australian (SA) clean energy systems installer, My Energy Engineering has powered an advanced robotic dairy with an off-grid solar array and containerised battery storage system for reliable round the clock energy.
The design uses 45 kVa Victron Quattro inverter clusters in parallel for high instantaneous current delivery, supported by 250 kWh of Pylontech LiFePO₄ batteries and 90 kW of solar generation delivered via 89.5 kW Trina Vertex S 415 W panels, forming a containerised hybrid system.
Image: My Energy Engineering
My Energy Engineering Chief Executive Officer Ciaram Granger said key engineering and technical barriers on the project stemmed from the need to power the fully robotic, 24/7 dairy where downtime would halt automated milking operations.
“High inductive load peaks from compressors, pumps, and robotics had to coexist with sensitive automation controls and maintaining low voltage deviation under heavy cycling loads was critical,” Granger said.
“Hybrid control scripting in Node-RED, enables live inverter synchronisation with robotic milking machinery load profiles via CAN and Modbus communication.”
“Custom load-priority hierarchy built in Node-RED also ensures critical systems (robotic milkers, refrigeration, lighting) are always supplied, while non-critical loads are automatically curtailed during low solar input,” Granger said.
Generator thresholds and SOC limits can be adjusted remotely through the integration with remote SCADA dashboards developed internally for live site visibility and control.
Image: My Energy Engineering
Adaptive generator management
The system also learns operational cycles from historical data and optimises charging windows around the herd’s milking schedule to reduce genset hours by ~90%.
It as been designed and installed at the family-owned McHugh Farms’ robotic dairy, located at Mount Compass, 58 kilometres south of Adelaide, and was recognised in the 2025 Master Electricians Australia Electrical Industry Excellence Awards, receiving the National Clean Energy Project of the Year Award.
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