Australian renewable energy developer MPower has boosted its solar PV and energy storage portfolio, announcing it has finalised an $8 million transaction which will see it purchase the Lakeland Solar & Energy Storage Project in far north Queensland.

MPower accelerates renewables strategy with Lakeland acquisition

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: MPower Group announced a transaction that accelerates its Build Own Operate (BOO) strategy with the proposed acquisition of the Lakeland Solar & Storage Project located in Cooktown Shire, North Queensland, comprising a 10.8MWac solar farm and an associated 1.4MWac/5.3MWh lithium-ion battery storage facility. Lakeland Solar & Storage Project has been in operation since 2017 and benefits from a long-term power purchase agreement with Origin Energy until 2030 for 100% of the Project’s output. The Project has an expected remaining operating life of approximately 20 years. MPower intends to deploy its in-house engineering team and capability to deliver immediate operational improvements, including upgrades to Project infrastructure and implementation of MPower’s proprietary solution for the control and monitoring of renewable energy projects. MPower will take responsibility for the operations, maintenance and asset management of the Project from Completion. The Project is expected to generate annual revenue from the sale of energy and LGCs of approximately $1.8 million and annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of more than $800,000. The acquisition delivers MPower a proven operating asset and accelerates the Company’s BOO strategy to include immediate energy storage infrastructure and a utility-scale renewable energy asset. MPower has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement with Kawa Australia Developments Pty Limited to acquire 100% of Lakeland Solar & Storage Pty Ltd, the owner of the Project. The transaction has an enterprise value of $8 million, comprising deferred consideration of up to $0.35 million over a three-year period following completion and the assumption of an existing $7.66 million limited recourse long-term debt facility in place with German bank, NORD/LB, one of Europe’s largest renewable energy project finance banks. The equity required for the transaction will be internally funded. The transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including third party consents being obtained and the finalisation of amendments to the existing debt facility structure. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of June 2022. The Project is strategically aligned to MPower’s portfolio and fast tracks the Company’s plans to own and operate a distribute portfolio of Australian renewable energy assets. The Project’s lithium-ion battery storage capacity further enhances the Company’s capability to own and manage assets in the burgeoning battery storage sector. The Project also expands MPower’s geographic footprint, adding Queensland to the Company’s existing development projects in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. MPower CEO Nathan Wise said: “The acquisition of the Lakeland project is an exciting opportunity for MPower that accelerates and expands our BOO strategy. It provides us with an established, operating hybrid renewable energy asset that will increase the Company’s revenues from day one, adding more than $800,000 to EBITDA per year. We intend to immediately deploy our expertise to upgrade the project and enhance its value.”
“This significant transaction lays a solid foundation for us to now accelerate the build-out of our BOO portfolio which is progressing very well. A number of significant steps forward are imminent. Furthermore, we continue to assess other underperforming renewable assets that might form part of our BOO portfolio and where we can improve asset performance.”
MPower Group Limited (ASX: MPR) is a technology-led company with a long history specialising in the delivery of reliable on-grid and off-grid power solutions for blue chip corporate and government customers. Headquartered in Sydney, MPower’s team of professionals has successfully delivered turn-key solar, battery storage and micro grid projects across the region.

MPower Group acquires Lakeland Solar & Storage Project in North Queensland

Dynamic Planner chief Ben Goss shares his passion for using technology to create a more engaging financial planning experience for consumers and advisers
“How can we reduce our own emissions? That’s a work in progress.”
Before we even sit down for this interview, Dynamic Planner chief executive Ben Goss and I launch into a discussion about the tech firm’s carbon-cutting ambitions. Most of the work the company has done so far has been towards reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions — that is, the energy it uses to run the business and create its products. “We got to carbon neutral two years ago,” says Goss. You can’t operate an advice business without financial planning technology. The economics don’t work
“Now we’re looking at how we can help get the emissions of people who are using our products down.”
One of the ways Dynamic Planner is doing this is through its hybrid programme, Client Access, which went live in March this year. Client Access is an interactive technology system designed to help advisers drive deeper client engagement and relationships in the new world of flexible and hybrid financial advice. Advisers can choose which questionnaires clients receive. Once captured, the information flows back into Dynamic Planner to support the profiling, cashflow and review processes. “Essentially, advisers can invite their clients to complete aspects of the financial planning process on their mobile, home [desktop] or laptop,” says Goss. The idea you can use economies of scale, because you’re a bigger firm, to invest in better technology and better customer experiences is very powerful
“That, we know, is a huge time saver. But it also means you can collaborate with clients in a way you just couldn’t before. “We see that as being beneficial for the advice firm, the advice process and the client.”
Goss adds: “But one of the positive by-products is people need to travel less. And that’s a good thing for the environment.”
Intellectual roots
Goss has always had a passion for the environment. He studied environmental science and geography at the University of Bradford. “I’ve always had an interest in the world around me,” he says. “And I’ve always had an interest in geography. We were talking about something called ‘Global warming’ back then [at university], in the late 1980s. Climate change, and the global warming it causes, have been known about for decades. It is only more recently the world has acted.”
After getting his bachelor’s degree, Goss went to the US to complete a master’s degree in economic geography at Indiana University. You could double the number of clients served by firms if you used hybrid technology, where the client played a more active role
“When I came back, I worked as an analyst programmer for an insurance company, and then as a strategy consultant for Coopers & Lybrand, now PwC. “I worked with some of the big banks and insurance companies — almost always on advised distribution, as it was called back then.”
Goss worked on the launch of Egg, which was an internet bank back in the day. “At that time, in the mid-90s, I thought the internet was going to be a really big thing,” he says. I try to keep a straight face. “You can smile,” he says. “I would say to my clients, about the internet, ‘I think it’s going to be an absolute game changer for your business.’ And one client said, ‘It will be a flash in the pan.’”
As we’ve seen our technology adopted, our ambition has grown
Goss’s steadfast belief in the power of the internet led him to leave PwC in 1998 to set up the UK’s first online advice service — called Sort — with a couple of friends. “We went to the PIA [Personal Investment Authority] — the forerunner of the Financial Services Authority, now the Financial Conduct Authority — and we told them what we wanted to do. “We became a regulated business, and we were advising over 1,000 people a day before we sold that business to a company called mPower, which is the largest provider of online advice in the US.”
He worked as UK managing director for mPower for three years before deciding he wanted to build his own company. So he set up Dynamic Planner in 2003. “When I was at university, I had a summer job at an asset management company. It was a friend who got me the job, and it was in a call centre,” Goss recalls. Our long-term vision is to be serving more than half of the UK as advised customers
“The way the company worked, essentially, was to put adverts in the Sunday press and people would then phone up and we would answer the phone. “We would give them… well, today you would call it advice. At the time, we were given a script and told to follow it. “I was 18 or 19 — what did I know? But I’ve always looked back on that experience and thought, ‘Actually, that was not a great way for clients to invest their money.’
“There was an imbalance in information between the investment company and the consumer.”
Technological flair
As he developed his career in financial services, Goss formed a passion for using technology to create a more engaging financial planning experience for both consumers and advisers. “If you can get that right, and so many of our clients do these days, everybody wins,” he says. “The client gets to fund the things that are important to them — often retirement — and they get to do it in a way where they’re fully engaged with the process, they understand the risks and opportunities, and they’re taking a level of risk that’s appropriate for them. Financial planning is lots of sub-processes and in many firms that is six or seven systems from which the client data is keyed and then rekeyed. This is prone to errors
“The adviser and the financial planning firm win because they get happy clients who stay with them and who feel they’re getting value from the process. “And the asset managers win because they then have stable clients in long-term, risk-adjusted portfolios that are doing what they need to do in order for people to achieve the things that are important to them. “The industry has come on in leaps and bounds. It’s completely unrecognisable from where it was in the ’80s when I was a student.”
One of the ways it has changed, says Goss, is that the use of technology is fundamental today. “When we started, I remember an adviser — who eventually became a client — and when I showed him Dynamic Planner he held up the back of an envelope and a pen and said: ‘I don’t understand why I need this. I’ve got the back of this envelope and this pen.’
The really big opportunity is to solve the review process using end-to-end financial planning but open up a hybrid dialogue with the client
“Clearly, you just can’t operate an advice business, whether a small firm or the largest firm in the country, without financial planning technology. You can’t do it because the economics don’t work. You need productivity. “This process of financial planning is actually lots of sub-processes: profiling the client, reviewing their portfolio, building cashflow plans and future-looking financial plans, researching, making recommendations, putting suitability reports together and reviewing the client after a year. “Still, in many firms that is six or seven systems from which the client data is keyed and then rekeyed. This process is prone to errors. Not to mention the fact each of those systems may have a different definition of risk. So you end up with what the FCA calls miscalibration risk.”
When the Retail Distribution Review was introduced in 2012, it changed the economics of advice firms from commission to fees. Efficient processes
“If you’re running a fee-based business — which, of course, all firms have to — it’s vital you make sure your processes are as efficient and suitable as possible,” says Goss. “Technology has been at the forefront of enabling change in advice firms over the past 10 years, and it’s about to take another big leap forward.”
You can collaborate with clients in a way you just couldn’t before. We see that as being beneficial for the advice firm, the advice process and the client
Given the changes to the market that have already occurred and the likely future innovations, how have Dynamic Planner’s ambitions altered from when it was launched? “The other day I was cleaning out our attic and I looked at our original business plan,” says Goss. “It was very similar to what we say today. Our purpose is to help advisers match people with suitable portfolios through engaging financial planning. “When we founded [the business] we called it Dynamic Planner because we wanted the process to be dynamic. We felt it could be an engaging and transparent process, in which the client could understand what was important. “As we’ve seen our technology adopted, our ambition has grown. Our long-term vision is to be serving more than half of the UK as advised customers. The industry has come on in leaps and bounds. It’s unrecognisable from where it was in the ’80s when I was a student
“As we get bigger, we’re able to invest more and more in both our technology and our investment services. We’ve doubled our R&D budget over the past two years and our forward-looking plan to 2025 sees us doubling it again. “As the industry moves ever more rapidly to adopting technology for financial planning processes, we are doubling down on our investment in enabling firms that use Dynamic Planner to embrace things like hybrid financial planning and sustainability as part of the advice discussion.”
Continental ambitions
The company is not stopping with the UK. In March 2022 it appointed Christophe Ponette as managing director for Europe, to lead the company’s continental expansion (see boxout). “Since Mifid II came in, in 2018, we have been getting inbound enquiries in continental Europe about how we, in the UK, are tackling some of the challenges that come with Mifid II regulations,” says Goss. “It became very clear the challenges advice firms and asset managers faced here were playing out across the continent.”
As for the future of the industry, he says: “Hybrid is absolutely the future. I think robo has been shown to be a limited marketplace.”
Goss argues robo advisers have struggled to acquire clients profitably while some advice firms have too many clients. He believes the Achilles heel of the industry is the review process, which takes the most time, energy and cost. Advisers can invite their clients to complete aspects of the financial planning process on their mobile, home [desktop] or laptop
Goss asks: “If we’re gonna talk about hybrid advice, where can it make the most difference? You could double the number of clients served by firms if you used hybrid technology, where the client played a more active role. “Around 75% of clients take an ongoing review. Firms make around three-quarters of their revenues from ongoing adviser charges. So it’s an absolutely fundamental part of the way the industry works. “We believe the really big opportunity is to solve the review process using end-to-end financial planning but open up a hybrid dialogue with the client, so they can participate in as much or as little of that process as they or their adviser would like.”
Goss also expects consolidation to pick up in the market. “Consolidation is running very strongly at the moment,” he says. “There are a number of firms that have institutional backing and see the opportunities to deliver more for everybody in the value chain. We got to carbon neutral two years ago. Now we’re looking at how we can help reduce the emissions of people who are using our products
“So the idea you can use economies of scale, because you’re a bigger firm, to invest in better technology and better customer experiences is very powerful. “It is clearly beneficial for the client if they can get access to solutions and services in a way that represents better value for money.”
With the Consumer Duty coming down the line, Goss suggests value for money will become an increasingly important part of the financial landscape and investment in technology will be vital. Dynamic Planner’s European expansion
On 22 March 2022, Dynamic Planner announced it had appointed Christophe Ponette as managing director for Europe, to lead the company’s continental expansion. Ponette was previously MD of Avaloq – the European banking and wealthtech provider for Benelux. He speaks multiple languages and has more than 25 years’ experience in sales and management positions in European markets, including Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Ponette’s appointment follows an extensive, two-year hiring process. Dynamic Planner looked at the needs of European financial services firms, asset managers and clients in response to Mifid II, the Insurance Distribution Directive and the growth in risk-based investing. Ponette will work in collaboration with Simon Colboc, who has joined Dynamic Planner in a non-executive capacity.

MM Meets tech visionary Ben Goss

UNITED STATES
Rockville, MD, May  05, 2022  (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mPhase Technologies, Inc. (OTC Pink: XDSL) (“mPhase” or the “Company”), a technology company developing the mPower EV+ (electric vehicle) charging network and consumer engagement platform, today announced that it has signed a purchase order with Shelly Electric Co., Inc. for two 120KW level 3 DC fast chargers for a Pennsylvania-based Ford dealership. The Company is excited to participate in the first phase of this charger installation, which is also expected to include level 2 chargers in the future. Like other major auto makers, Ford is in the process of transitioning its fleet to electric vehicles, which will require an increasing number of charging units on premises at dealerships. The timing of today’s announcement coincides with the first deliveries of Ford’s much anticipated F-150 Lightning truck, which has already sold out for the 2022 model year. The mPhase installation will mark a number of firsts, including entry into the Pennsylvania market, the Company’s initial level 3 charger sales, and the beginning of a targeted entry into the auto dealership vertical. “This purchase order checks some important boxes, most notably our ability to deliver a competitive offering in the important Level 3 category,” said mPhase CEO and Chairman Anshu Bhatnagar. “Level 3 chargers are an essential part of the EV charging landscape, but even more important for high-powered vehicles such as the Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. We expect the Level 3 charger will become a standard sight at dealerships for all car companies throughout the country as each fleet expands to include a higher percentage of EVs, particularly those with larger battery storage capacity. Our goal is to gain experience in this vertical in order to capture more business at dealerships in need of a reliable charging footprint.”
Operational Update
While early 2022 presented a number of unexpected supply chain issues, customer delays, and other global challenges, management believes that these issues have been adequately addressed to resume the EV ecosystem growth plan outlined in prior communications. As part of this strategy, mPhase recently began optimizing its management team and third-party providers to better position the Company for the next stage of its ambitious growth plan, which includes a multi-state rollout and eventual uplist. Given current market conditions and the need to accelerate a major equipment installation cycle, mPhase has implemented a program to significantly cut overhead (including payroll), in order to allocate a higher percentage of the operating budget to EV charging site development. The Company’s pipeline continues to be robust, with several thousand potential sites under review for inclusion in the mPower ecosystem. Management will provide a more complete update in the next quarterly earnings report, which is due in mid-May. About mPhase Technologies
mPhase is an emerging EV-centric technology company focused on consumer engagement using data analytics and artificial intelligence to create a monetizable link between consumers and retailers at opportunistic times and places. The Company is currently building a connected ecosystem of EV charging, 5G internet connectivity and software solutions that optimize consumer engagement within the framework of a SaaS/TaaS model. Branded under the mPower name, this ecosystem will empower the way people shop, dine, fuel and interact with the world to create a richer life experience. The mPower ecosystem is tailored to each individual’s tastes and needs, with particular emphasis on empowering tomorrow’s green consumer. mPhase also has data driven business units generating recurring revenue outside of its consumer ecosystem, in addition to legacy nanobattery technology and a related patent portfolio that are slated for future development. Additional information can be found at the mPhase website,  www.mphasetech.com ; and at  www.mpower.co . Please follow us on twitter: @mPhase_Tech for the latest updates. Investor Contact:

mPhase Announces First Auto Dealer EV Charging Contract – to Provide Level 3 Chargers to Ford Dealership in Pennsylvania

Siemens' new mPower Digital solution for power integrity analysis of analog, digital and mixed-signal IC designs is now certified for digital analysis of designs using GlobalFoundries' platforms. Siemens Digital Industries Software’s new mPower Digital solution for power integrity analysis of analog, digital and mixed-signal IC designs is now certified for digital analysis of designs using GlobalFoundries’ (GF) platforms. The significant power and performance advancements of GF’s feature rich platforms, equipped with advanced features such as RF, automotive, ultra-low power memory and logic, make them ideal for next-generation ICs targeting the automotive, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and communications markets, as well as other high-performance digital and mixed-signal applications. “Our engagement with Siemens is another example of how GF is partnering with the ecosystem leaders to deliver innovative, time to market solutions for our customers,” said Richard Trihy, vice president of Design Enablement, at GF. “It is exciting to see a new entrant into this critical EDA field of power integrity and Siemens’ new power analysis solution gives our customers more flexibility in meeting sign-off requirements.”
Siemens’ mPower integrated circuit (IC) power integrity verification solution supports analog, digital, and mixed signal designs, while enabling comprehensive power, electromigration (EM) and voltage drop (IR) analysis. GF has qualified Siemens’ mPower Digital flow, and customers can request PDK support for any technology. “Siemens is pleased that GF, a global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing, has now certified our new mPower solution,” said Michael Buehler-Garcia, vice president of Product Management for Calibre Design Solutions at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “Siemens’ collaboration with GF on these certifications will help our mutual customers conduct power integrity analysis tasks more quickly and accurately, enabling faster tape-outs with enhanced reliability and quality of results.”

Siemens mPower Digital Solution Now Certified for GlobalFoundries’ Platforms

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mPower.com was a Internet/Internet Software & Services company based in San Francisco, California.  mPower.com was acquired in 2003.

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