Empowering end-to-end project development with Volta Energy Group

"We started with spreadsheets—big, messy spreadsheets," says Ryan McKenzie, Founder and Managing Director of Volta Energy Group. "As soon as our team started growing, I knew we needed a better way for energy modelling."

Volta Energy Group has rapidly emerged as a key player in the Australian energy sector, providing advisory, delivery, and operations services across a diverse portfolio of renewable energy projects. Founded just over 18 months ago, Volta has scaled quickly, now operating with a team of approximately 20. We sat down with Ryan to explore Volta’s evolution, the challenges it has faced in energy project modelling, and how it has leveraged Gridcog to drive efficiency and insight in its work.

A Growing Force in Energy Development

"We started as Volta Advisory, but as we naturally grew into delivery, we rebranded to Volta Energy Group to reflect that full life-cycle approach," Ryan explains. "Advisory leads into delivery, and now we’re even covering operations and maintenance."

Originally based in Perth, Volta relocated its headquarters to Melbourne to be closer to key market opportunities. "We moved over about nine months ago. We’re based out in Richmond now, across two offices," Ryan says. Volta’s portfolio spans national and international markets, with projects across South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and the Northern Territory. "We’ve looked at some things in Japan and Singapore, but our primary market is still Australia."

Navigating the Challenges of Energy Modelling

"I’ve been in energy for 18 years, and we’ve always typically used spreadsheets," Ryan says. "But these spreadsheets are mammoth. They take so long to set up."

As Volta grew, inefficiencies in traditional modelling approaches became clear:

• Labour-intensive processes meant significant time spent on spreadsheet modelling.
• The increasing team size required a scalable, standardised modelling approach.
• Large transactions still demanded bespoke financial models for banks, but a more agile approach was needed for other projects.

Volta’s projects range from behind-the-meter Commercial & Industrial (C&I) battery storage systems to multi-hundred megawatt-hour utility-scale projects. The company has also modelled a gigawatt-hour project and is actively exploring co-located BESS with data centres.

Gridcog Implementation and Key Benefits

"I’d crossed paths with the Gridcog team before," Ryan recalls. "I’m in the startup community, so I met Fabian at Startmate. I knew about Gridcog and thought, ‘We need to deploy new tech here.’"

Volta adopted Gridcog to improve project modelling and financial decision-making. The ability to quickly build and refine models has saved the company considerable time, particularly for fast-moving C&I projects.

"On a typical C&I project, Gridcog saves us at least two days," McKenzie estimates. "For a small business owner, that’s huge."

Beyond time savings, Gridcog has enhanced Volta’s ability to test multiple scenarios quickly. The team frequently assesses different revenue projections, asset configurations, and financial models before making investment decisions. With Gridcog, Volta can rapidly iterate through different assumptions, ensuring that projects are optimised and financially viable before progressing. "We can spool up a model, run different cases, and immediately see the impact—something that would have taken us days before," says Ryan.

Another key advantage has been transparency. Unlike other tools that operate as "black boxes," Gridcog allows Volta’s team to download and inspect every data point. This level of transparency is particularly important when working with investors, as it ensures that all assumptions and calculations can be scrutinised. "We don’t just trust outputs; we verify them," Ryan explains.

"Gridcog gives us the flexibility to dig into the details and ensure we’re making sound financial decisions."

As Volta continues to grow, it is exploring how Gridcog can be leveraged beyond advisory work. The company sees potential in using Gridcog for ongoing asset tracking, replacing some of the spreadsheet-based monitoring processes currently in place. As it expands its O&M services, real-time performance analysis through Gridcog could become an integral part of its long-term strategy.

“For mid-sized projects, Gridcog has proven bankable for equity partners. We’ve used Gridcog to justify equity investments in several ventures where we have skin in the game, and investors are happy to use Gridcog as the model. For larger projects requiring full bank due diligence, Gridcog plays a supporting role in preemptive modelling.”

In It Together

Looking ahead, Volta aims to integrate paid market curves for more accurate pricing projections. "Right now, we use the standard free curves, but we’re talking to Pete about putting in some paid curves for better spreads."

Ryan also sees an evolving relationship between Volta and Gridcog. 

"As Gridcog grows, it helps us grow. And as we expand, we bring new challenges to Gridcog. It’s a symbiotic relationship. I'm looking forward to our continued partnership and mutual growth in the future.”

Gridcog has enabled Volta Energy Group to streamline project modelling, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance decision-making. Its role in Volta’s workflow is now firmly established, helping the company accelerate the energy transition through smarter, data-driven insights.

"I’m all for doing things faster and more efficiently. We’re all in this together for the energy transition—let’s get stuff done quickly." Ryan concluded.