Communications infrastructure energy efficiency upgrade (Revoked)

Communications infrastructure energy efficiency upgrade (Revoked) is an energy efficiency project managed out of North Sydney, NSW, but with infrastructure located nationwide across Australia. It was registered in October 2016 by BAI Communications Pty Ltd. Because it is a distributed infrastructure network spanning the country rather than a single plot of land, the specific project area size is undefined.

Industrial Electricity and Fuel Efficiency projects involve reducing greenhouse gas emissions by upgrading, modifying, removing, or replacing existing energy-consuming equipment to improve efficiency. For this project, the activities specifically targeted "other machines" related to telecommunications and broadcasting operations.

As a nationwide project covering various transmission and communication sites, the general land use is commercial and industrial infrastructure, contrasting with traditional agricultural or forestry operations. Consequently, the environmental conditions span Australia's diverse climates, meaning typical rainfall classifications range from semi-arid inland areas to high-rainfall coastal zones, with soil types varying widely from sandy loam to basalt and clay depending on the specific tower or facility location.

An interesting note about this project is that it was officially revoked under section 33 of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) Act on August 9, 2017. The proponent, BAI Communications, provides the communications backbone for mission-critical services, managing more than 745 transmission sites delivering broadcast and emergency network services to 99% of the Australian population. Around the time of this project, BAI Communications was undertaking a major nationwide infrastructure upgrade program, which included swapping older lead-acid batteries in their Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) for more efficient lithium batteries across their radio sites to improve power management.