Electric Mine Consortium Seeking Energy Management System

The Electric Mine Consortium (EMC) is reaching out to leading technology companies to design an energy management system for the zero emissions electric mine of the future.

The matching of energy supply to demand will become more complex than for a conventional diesel-powered mine, providing opportunities to optimise energy costs, efficiency, and carbon emissions.

South32 Chief Technical Officer Vanessa Torres said “At South32, we are designing our Hermosa development project to be our first next generation mine, using automation and technology to minimise our impact on the environment and to target net zero greenhouse gas emissions in line with our goal of achieving net zero operational carbon emissions by 2050.”

“But future mine energy management systems will need to optimise and integrate intermittent renewable power and zero-emissions charging technology.

“The Electric Mine Consortium, which South32 is a member of, has identified the gaps in managing and optimising the energy requirements of an electric mine system and is seeking suppliers who can provide or collaborate to design a total technology solution.”

Successful vendors may have their energy system trialled at a member site.

“This is a great market opportunity for vendors,” said EMC manager, Simon Prebble. “Successful suppliers get access to operators and their sites and the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to decarbonising the industry.”

Eighty-three per cent of the industry expect renewable energy technologies to significantly change mining operations over the next 15 years.

“Electrification will be a catalyst for more rigorous mine planning and better end-to-end scheduling because electrical energy systems are much more integrated and scheduling more precise,” said EMC founder and director, Graeme Stanway.

“For the first time there is a clear consolidated demand for an energy management system for use in a future electric mine.”

The consortium alone has over $20 billion worth of greenfield projects in the public pipeline that will be designed with electrification in mind given social and investor expectations.

The EMC received over 40 high-quality vendor submissions across their last two Expressions of Interest (EOI’s), calling for electric solutions for surface long haulage and energy storage in mining.

You can find out more about the Energy Management System (EMS) Request for Information here.