Mandalay Resources is in the midst of a push to cut down on electricity prices.

It comes as many Australian businesses respond to recent price rises of between 50 and 100 per cent.

The price rises are being driven by an electricity shortfall caused in part by the closure of ageing coal-fired power stations and rising gas prices, according to Simon Corbell, Victoria’s renewable energy advocate.

Related: Bendigo businesses in bill shock, but advocate says hope is on horizon

The Bendigo Sustainability Group is eagerly watching how Costerfield miners progress as they chase savings on their multi-million dollar power bills.

BSG president Chris Weir said traditionally mines have consumed power without focusing on how that was affected by their operations.

He said mines like Costerfield were now putting greater efforts into energy storage and smart management systems, while many businesses were thinking about solar and other renewables.

“It’s starting to open up conversations and intelligence that can be shared with the rest of the community,” Mr Weir said.

Related: How energy customers’ bills got so high

On Tuesday, Mandalay Resource’s Jayson Guzzo was one of the speakers at a workshop in Bendigo digging into ways manufacturers and other businesses could save on power.

Mr Guzzo, the mine’s electrical and fixed plan supervisor, said the mine had a number of challenges feeding power into its site as demanded to grow continued.

He said no-one at the mine got excited when they saw power bills come in.

“You need to set yourself a goal. For us that goal is turning a negative into a positive. Can we get to a point where we are so efficient we can sell energy back onto the market and create a cash positive situation?” Mr Guzzo said.

“Houses do it all the time. Why can’t a business?”

As it continues to work on energy efficiency, the Costerfield mine is setting up generators and gas systems onsite. It is also trying to better use mains electricity, which is still the cheapest source of power available.

“We try to chase efficiencies right down to the source. We are buying high quality electrical motors and other assets with high efficiency,” Mr Guzzo said.

“You can find an enormous amount of efficiencies just by doing that.”

Related: Incoming federal energy minister to target power companies, saying they have breached Australians’ trust

Mr Guzzo had a bit of advice for time-poor businesses hoping to be more energy efficient, which Mr Weir said many could to learn from: Make the effort to go through your power bills with a fine-tooth comb.

That is what Mr Guzzo did when, early on in his role, he got his first $3 million power bill.

“It was so confusing. There were so many acronyms, talk of green energy, black energy, demand tariffs and all this,” he said.

“Normally with my bills on the fridge at home I’d say ‘whatever, this is probably right’, but for this one I thought I better learn everything there was to know about it.”

Mr Guzzo and his team discovered the power company was determining how much to charge by looking at the maximum and minimum amount of power the mine used. But those maximum peaks were few and far between, taking place as staff moved their operations into new sections of the mine site.

That peak charge could be reset. All it took was a phone call and proof the demand for power had dropped off again.

“That saved Mandalay Resources $110,000 a year. Unfortunately we’d been paying that premium for three years already,” Mr Guzzo said.

“That’s not putting solar in, that’s not doing anything fancy. It’s purely learning about your bill and understanding how much is in your control.”

Mr Weir said another way to reduce peak bills was to consider a demand management system, which could help even out the amount of electricity used.

Thursday’s workshop was run by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the City of Greater Bendigo, in association with the Bendigo Sustainability Group.

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.