with Rakhesh Martyn, Founder and CEO of Hachiko
In this edition of New Energy Expert Insights, we speak with Rakhesh Martyn, Founder of Hachiko, about five ways that real-time optimisation software can improve returns for battery developers and owners – and why so much value is still being left on the table.
About
Rakhesh is the Founder and CEO of Hachiko. He is a chemical engineer who moved from petrochemicals into distributed energy in 2015 and has never looked back. Since then, he has worked across demand response, embedded generation, distributed battery and solar portfolios, and optimisation software, during which he has been responsible for delivering multiple first-of-a-kind and “sharp tip of the spear” energy projects across energy and FCAS markets. After experiencing first-hand the limitations of existing optimisation tools from both the project owner and software provider perspective, he founded Hachiko to create a market-leading purpose-built platform designed around the needs of battery portfolio owners.
Hachiko is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform focused on the optimisation, aggregation and portfolio management of non-scheduled battery energy storage systems (BESS) / hybrid (solar PV & BESS) in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Targeting both load-connected and standalone assets, Hachiko integrates proprietary machine learning models, real-time market data, site constraints, trading strategies, and contract requirements (e.g. Power Purchase Agreements) to maximise owners’ risk-adjusted returns in energy and FCAS markets whilst minimising costs. Leveraging over 2 decades’ worth of experience managing the technical and commercial complexity of complex distributed portfolios, as both owner-operator and software provider, Hachiko’s goal is to deliver improved revenue performance, bankability and scalable deployment of battery storage across Australia. What sets Hachiko apart is its commitment to providing transparency to battery owners whilst enabling them to capture the full value of their assets. In this edition of Expert Insights, Rakhesh explains the five ways in which this philosophy plays out in practice.
- Building a Business Case Banks Will Back
Australia is not deploying battery storage at the pace required to support the transition to a renewable energy system. Bridging that gap will require significant volumes of private capital, particularly debt finance, as equity alone will not fund the scale of deployment required.
However, many projects are still presented to lenders with static financial models and insufficient evidence of downstream operating capability. While necessary, static models describe outcomes rather than demonstrating the capability to deliver them. Without a clear link between projected revenues and real-world performance with the necessary tools in a volatile market, lenders are often unable to obtain sufficient comfort to effectively assess asset return profiles and financing often stalls.
Built-for-purpose optimisation software helps close that gap. By using combined historical and real-time data to model performance, developers can move beyond theoretical projections and show how assets actually perform in practice. Additionally, where the same platform supports both the investment case and operations, it provides a more credible and testable basis for lender diligence and decision-making.
- Focusing on What Matters
Across the market, a significant number of projects are not falling over because of weak fundamentals, but because either the software used to operate them cannot support the way they are configured, or because the perceived integration risk is too high. Developers may have a financial model that supports a project on size, location and timing, but as projects move toward delivery, limitations in downstream optimisation and control systems can mean the asset cannot be operated as intended. Projects are then redesigned, constrained, or do not proceed at all, creating a disconnect between what is investable in theory and what is deliverable in practice.
This gap is compounded by the traditional methods of measuring BESS performance employed in the industry. Metrics such as “percent of perfect”, which replay a trading day with actual prices to calculate a theoretical revenue ceiling, can create a false sense of precision. Whilst this metric measures the absolute effectiveness of an optimisation platform, it does not account for counterfactual scenarios, such as the inherent differences between project locations or changes made by battery owners to their trading strategies over time.
The effectiveness of an optimisation platform should not be measured by how close it gets to a theoretical ceiling that ignores operational realities, but by how effectively it can navigate such. This will ensure that assets can be operated as intended across the full range of battery types and configurations a project owner requires.
- Empowering Owners
Retaining control of an asset gives owners a direct role in shaping its revenue performance. Rather than accepting a predefined return profile, owners can actively manage how the asset operates and how it captures value across different market conditions, or structure deals effectively to combine contracted revenue and access to upside.
Tolling agreements exemplify this trade-off: they offer simplicity and revenue certainty, but require owners to cede control (physically or virtually) to an offtaker. In return for taking on risk, the offtaker retains a meaningful share of the upside. The result is a more predictable but narrower revenue profile, often below what may be achievable through active engagement across spot and futures markets. This has historically been one of two options available to developers, with the other being “black box” returns with 100% revenue at risk.
Built-for-purpose optimisation platforms allow battery owners to capture more of the value their assets generate, rather than transferring it to third parties. They also enable combinations of revenue certainty and market exposure to suit owners’ risk appetites. While control does not guarantee better outcomes, when paired with the right capability, it can significantly increase the revenue potential of BESS/hybrid assets, leading to greater portfolio scale.
- Configurability and Explainability
Asset owners should be able to rely on their platform to deliver strong revenue outcomes without constant intervention. However, batteries are long-life assets, built to operate over 15 to 20 years, and the decisions made today need to stand up over an asset’s lifespan.
As portfolios grow and owners become more sophisticated, expectations and funding structures change. Systems are required to do more than simply optimise in the background. Projects require a platform that can be interrogated, adjusted, and understood throughout their life cycles. “Black boxes” cannot fulfil this purpose.
Configurability and explainability are central to achieving this. Configurability means the platform reflects the owner’s approach to asset use, market participation, and risk, rather than imposing a single operating model. An example of this may be choosing to cycle batteries with varying degrees of aggression throughout a given month/quarter, or managing capacity allocation to maximise dispatch certainty in shallow markets.
Explainability complements configurability by making those decisions transparent and giving owners the data they require to drive modifications to configuration if desired. Owners can see why the system is acting, what data it is relying on, and how different inputs are being weighed. Together, these capabilities enable owners not just to execute a strategy, but to understand and refine it over time.
- Growing with the Market
For many battery owners, adopting optimisation software is not just about using a new tool. It is about understanding how the market works. That is particularly true for developers owning portfolios for the first time and investors entering into their first Australian transactions.
Knowledge-backed optimisation software supports owners in understanding how BESS assets generate value, where risks sit, and how to navigate them in practice. That combination of insight and tooling enables a shift from passive ownership to active participation, with a clearer line of sight to how revenue is created. Portfolio owners can enjoy the upside from their hard-earned operating assets, enabling scale that was previously incredibly difficult to achieve.
We are seeing a change in how owners approach portfolio development. Rather than asking what types of projects the software can support, they are focused on building and structuring projects that make commercial sense, and then using the platform to execute them. This reflects a broader shift in the market, from reliance on external operators to more informed, confident and empowered ownership.
The Hamilton Locke team advises across the energy project life cycle — from project development, grid connection, financing, and construction, through to the buying and selling of development and operating projects. For more information, please contact Matt Baumgurtel.
