Yes. Anyone who consumes electricity can join. As a consumer, you can choose who you buy electricity from and at what price. You might support your local community, or decide to support suppliers based on the environmental impact of the generators.

Localvolts is just as much about providing you choice and control over the electricity that you consume, as it is about creating a fair market for producers to sell their excess energy.

The concept behind Localvolts is to create a fair and transparent marketplace for electricity. We strongly believe that the current prices of electricity are higher than they should be, especially for customers who are producing electricity for themselves. You will be making your own decisions regarding prices and energy sources. The actual outcomes will depend on the marketplace. This should deliver a better outcome for you.

The Localvolts bill will identify all of the costs involved in consuming electricity which include grid charges, metering fees, renewable certificates, energy cost, etc.

You will know exactly what all of the charges are, and to whom you are paying them.

For more information, visit our How it Works page.

Yes. You are in total control of your energy sales with Localvolts: you will set your own sale price(s), and decide who receives your offer(s) – meaning you will be able to do a direct deal with your own customers. This should naturally give you a better price for your excess energy.

All imported energy in excess of your original matched quantity is bought from the wholesale spot energy market operated by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

If you imported less energy than originally agreed, then you will pay for the actual (reduced) quantity of energy at the agreed matched price.

Your physical electricity supply will not be affected in either case.

Negative prices for energy are normal and we pass them through the same way as positive energy prices. With negative energy prices, the effect on the producers and consumers of energy are reversed: generators pay out cash for their exported energy, while consumers receive cash for their imported energy.

In the wholesale spot energy market, prices become negative when there is excess generation in the system.

Persons with generators in the Localvolts market can also offer their energy at negative prices to transfer cash to the targeted consumer(s).

We encourage you to go through the buy (or sell) process at least once to set up your preferences with auto-renewals. With auto-renewals enabled, the system will continue to buy (or sell) on your behalf without any further action required from you. Naturally, you can stop or modify your preference set up at any time.