Australia Post, formally known as the Australian Postal Corporation, is Australia’s national postal service provider and a key government business enterprise. With more than 6,900 retail outlets nationwide—including 4,429 metropolitan and 2,561 rural and remote locations—and over 33,000 employees, Australia Post operates one of the country’s largest and most complex facility networks. Its iconic Bourke Street headquarters in Melbourne also functions as a retail outlet and has served as a central hub during a broader facility transformation across the organisation.

As part of an ongoing optimisation program, many of Australia Post’s facilities have undergone significant changes. With decentralisation of core operations, surplus floor space in key buildings has been repurposed into serviced office space—leased to commercial tenants as flexible workplaces. While this creates new revenue streams, it also introduces operational challenges, especially when these facilities are remotely managed from Melbourne.

The Challenge: Aligning Services with Real-World Utilisation

Managing distributed serviced office spaces involves significant logistical coordination, particularly around cleaning, maintenance, and servicing. Australia Post and its facilities management partner Cushman & Wakefield wanted a smarter, more dynamic approach to managing service levels—one that relied on real-time data rather than static schedules.

They identified energy utilisation as a leading indicator of space occupancy. By tracking when and how tenants use their spaces, service delivery could be better aligned with actual usage—delivering the right services at the right time, while reducing waste and cost.

The Solution: AlphaX Energy with X1 Current Monitoring Sensors

To deliver the required visibility, Minnovation implemented a fully wireless energy monitoring solution using X1 Current Monitoring Sensors, integrated with the AlphaX Energy platform.

Each tenant space was equipped with an X1 sensor, designed specifically for quick and flexible deployment. These sensors:

• Measure aggregate energy utilisation by detecting current flow through electrical circuits.
• Operate on battery power, with no connection to mains electricity or existing site infrastructure.
• Use LoRaWAN and 4G communication protocols, ensuring reliable data transmission in any environment.
• Report data at 15-minute intervals, providing granular insights into usage patterns.

Rapid, Low-Impact Installation

One of the key advantages of this solution was its rapid deployment and minimal disruption. The entire installation across all selected office spaces was completed in a single day. Because the solution is 100% wireless, there was no need for cabling, power supply modifications, or integration into the building’s existing systems.

This site-agnostic design meant the solution could be deployed at scale and speed, making it ideal for retrofitting both new and legacy sites. Minnovation’s team installed the sensors, commissioned the devices, and ensured real-time data was flowing to the AlphaX Energy platform by the end of the same day—minimising downtime and enabling instant value capture.

Data-Driven Facilities Management in Action

With energy utilisation data now available in near real-time, Cushman & Wakefield facilities managers can:

• Monitor daily and weekly trends in each space.
• Identify peak usage periods and adjust cleaning and maintenance schedules accordingly.
• Detect underutilised spaces, reducing service frequency and cost.
• Receive automated alerts for anomalies or unexpected consumption patterns, sent instantly via SMS or email through the AlphaX platform.

The data is also forwarded to Cushman Wakefield’s central data lake, where it supports ad-hoc analysis and strategic planning across their national portfolio.

Empowering Tenants and Encouraging Sustainability

Australia Post also saw an opportunity to use this data not just for facilities management, but to educate tenants and promote energy-conscious behaviour. While traditional billing-grade meters can be costly and complex to implement, this lightweight solution allows tenant-level visibility without billing infrastructure.

Using AlphaX dashboards, tenants can view their energy usage, compare performance over time, and understand their environmental impact. This supports:

• Sustainability education
• Behavioural change
• Proportional cost-sharing, based on usage trends rather than estimates

By making this information available in a transparent and user-friendly way, Australia Post aims to promote shared responsibility and foster smarter energy habits across its serviced office tenants.

Project Outcomes and Impact

With this solution, Australia Post and Cushman & Wakefield have unlocked significant operational benefits:

• Improved alignment of services with real-time space utilisation
• Faster response times to anomalies and abnormal usage
• Reduction in service delivery costs by scaling efforts to actual demand
• Empowered tenants with usage data and sustainability insights
• A scalable, repeatable solution for national rollout across similar sites

Why Minnovation’s Approach Works

Minnovation’s ability to deliver a turnkey, non-invasive, and intelligent monitoring solution is underpinned by its proven technology and deep industry expertise. With over 300,000 IoT sensors under management and a commitment to reinvesting 50% of revenue into R&D, Minnovation ensures its solutions remain innovative, scalable, and future-ready.

Furthermore, every new datapoint collected through AlphaX Energy enhances the platform’s AI algorithms, improving its ability to predict usage patterns, detect anomalies, and drive even greater efficiency over time.

Conclusion

This case study demonstrates how smart, wireless energy monitoring can be deployed rapidly and cost-effectively to deliver powerful operational insights. With AlphaX Energy and X1 sensors, Australia Post and Cushman & Wakefield have transformed how facilities are managed—turning energy data into a strategic tool for smarter service delivery, tenant engagement, and sustainability performance.

Interested in doing the same? Contact Minnovation today to learn how you can transform your facilities with intelligent energy monitoring.