The successful development and delivery of an infrastructure program is highly dependent on two main factors—location and technological disruption. While resources are easily available in an urban location, finding the best workers or contractors to complete a project in a remote, regional, or marginalized area is an uphill task. For example, to run a construction project in a city like New York, there can be many contractors available, and if one fails to meet the requirements, another alternative can easily be available. The same is not true for a remote area with a handful of resources surrounded by numerous other obligations like socio-political factors of the community. Similarly, technological disruption also plays a huge role in infrastructure management, including renewable energy projects. Often, organizations switch to technology as a substitution to their existing process without changing their business practices to achieve the same results more efficiently. Instead, they need to take a transformational approach incorporating required changes to business processes to gain maximum benefits of new technologies. As an expert independent advisory firm, Ekistica helps navigate the complex challenges of remote area infrastructure development through its advisory, project development, engineering design, and project delivery services. "Our vision is a world where location is not a barrier to good technical outcomes and where the appropriation of technology enables people, communities, and businesses to reach their full potential,” says Lyndon Frearson, Managing Director & Principal Consultant of Ekistica.

Ekistica’s experience spans a wide range of infrastructure projects, including stand-alone power systems, housing and community facilities like swimming pools in remote indigenous communities, renewable energy generation facilities at commercial airports and tourism ventures, and utility scale wind and solar farms. “While many of our more prominent projects are in the renewable energy sector, our underlying principles have allowed us to be innovative and successful across a broader range of infrastructure and technology projects,” states Frearson.

The company’s name has its roots in ancient Greek, referencing the study of human settlement and the relationship between people, place and technology.
True to its meaning, Ekistica works with its clients to understand their pain points and redefine their engagement with technology through the delivery of technical advice on infrastructure and service delivery related technologies. Ekistica provides detailed analysis of options and designs solutions that reflect the client's needs, addressing the underlying issues instead of superficial ones. The solutions are powered by the company’s electrical, structural, civil, and environmental engineering capabilities, complemented by experienced data analysts. The company also provides project delivery services, as well as associated governance, O&M training, and support frameworks. Ekistica’s experienced ‘boots on the ground’ project management services are delivered by employees who understand the challenges of developing and building infrastructure in remote, regional, and marginalized areas. This has earned the company a reputation for highly responsive, quality-focused project delivery.
Established in 2007, Ekistica functions more as an advisor than a standard consultant. In the case of a particular client planning to build a large renewable energy system, the company worked with the client to determine their prime objective was to reduce expenditure on power. This led to Ekistica working through various options for doing so with the client, and together concluding that a solar PV system was not the best response for meeting the client’s objective.

“By pushing the development of a large scale solar development in Australia, we have enabled remote regional areas to support the national energy grid,” says Frearson. He also notes that, “over the next few years, Ekistica’s focus will increasingly be driven by a ‘systems' thinking, as opposed to simply considering either the demand or supply side of the power sector–this reflects that changing and decentralising of power systems.”