Localvolts – Electricity My Way!

Version 2.0

9 August 2026

Localvolts – How it all Works

Localvolts is a new type of energy company operating an open electricity marketplace where you have full control over the purchase and sale of your energy and associated services. You choose your preferred suppliers and customers, and set your own price for energy. Your outcomes will depend on your specific energy usage and production profile(s), your preferences, and the market conditions.

Eligible Customers

We accept residential and business customers located in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania.

A business customer can be a Sole Trader, Partnership, Company, Strata, Trust, Cooperative or Government organisation and is signified with an Australian Company Number (ACN) or Australian Business Number (ABN).

The premises must be connected to the grid directly or inside an embedded network. The premises can have any type of meter.

Marketplace

You access the Localvolts marketplace directly at https://market.localvolts.com or via the Localvolts website. This is where you interact with others to buy and sell electricity, examine your position and transactions, maintain your details, communicate with others and with Localvolts, and examine overall market statistics.

Localvolts marketplace is available to Localvolts’ customers only.

Buying Electricity

You control the price you pay for your energy, when you buy, and who you buy from. We find for you the cheapest energy for every 5-minute period to cover your specific needs while respecting your wishes as expressed by your preferences. Where we don’t find a match, or you use more energy than anticipated, you buy your energy from the wholesale spot market operated by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

For periods where you do not set any buy preferences, all of your energy is purchased from the wholesale spot market.

You can choose to buy all or part of your energy from the wholesale spot market.

Set and Forget: You can setup an auto-renewal process where we purchase energy for you on a periodic basis within the preference rules you have determined.

You can modify your set-up and buy preferences at any time.

Selling Electricity

Where you export energy into the grid, you control the sale price of your electricity, when you sell, and who you sell to. You place your offers and we find the buyers willing to accept your energy for every 5-minute period. Where we don’t find a match, or you end up exporting more energy than anticipated, you sell your electricity into the wholesale spot market operated by AEMO.

For periods where you do not make any offers, all of your energy is sold into the wholesale spot market.

You can choose to sell all or part of your energy into the wholesale spot market.

Set and Forget: You can setup an auto-renewal process where your offers are put to the market on a periodic basis.

You can modify your set-up and offers at any time.

Negative Prices

Energy prices can be both positive and negative – this is a normal feature of our electricity market.  When prices are negative, one earns a credit for consuming, or buying, energy and incurs a cost for exporting, or selling, energy into the grid.

Wholesale spot energy prices can be negative during periods of low aggregate demand and high energy production.  One can also set negative sell prices in the Localvolts marketplace as part of one’s trading strategy.

Emissions

We track the current and expected emissions content of your energy purchases and sales in real-time so that you always know your carbon footprint. We do this by tracking the real-time power output and the emissions intensities of all generators in the National Electricity Market. Naturally, your carbon footprint is reduced whenever you purchase clean energy from others in the marketplace.

Localvolts Application Programming Interface (API)

Our customers can obtain 5-minute historical, current, and future price and performance data in real-time for their premises via the Localvolts API, as described in the Localvolts API Guide.

Control of batteries, electric vehicles, chargers and other devices

We encourage all of our customers with controllable devices to operate them to take advantage of real-time market prices provided by Localvolts.  Many customers set up their own automation to do this, while others use the services of our Partners.  Some devices have built-in intelligent controls that simply need to be enabled.  The goal is to maximise your financial returns on your Localvolts electricity bill.  Others may call this being part of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).

Qualifying Localvolts customers with batteries can benefit from government incentive schemes.

We do not monitor or control your devices.

Pass-through Costs and Prices

All prices, costs, and charges are applied on a pass-through basis – we do not add any mark-ups.

Allocating AEMO’s Prudential Requirements

AEMO requires all retailers to provide credit support in the form of bank guarantees and cash deposits to cover energy purchases from the wholesale spot market. We will identify the credit support needed to support your energy purchases, and charge for the costs associated with providing that capital to AEMO.

Localvolts Service Fee

We charge a service fee, please see our rates at the end of this document.  Customers with special needs may attract additional fees.

Transparency

We display the rates, quantities, and names of the buyers and sellers involved in all transactions.

Billing

We bill monthly.  Customers with manually read meters will be billed in line with their meter read dates.  Such meters are generally read every three months.

Payments

Post-pay

Your bills will be issued with a pay-by date. You must pay your bills by this pay-by date.

You will incur a charge for using Post-pay.

Failure to pay on time

You may lose access to our services if you fail to pay your bills on time.  These include, but are not limited to:

• the Localvolts marketplace, including cancellation of your existing trades;
• data feeds via the Localvolts API;
• data or services provided to third parties for your benefit; and
• any other service we offer.

Meters

We accept all types of accumulation and interval meters – no special metering is required to be with us – your existing utility meter will do.

Concession Customers

You will need to request and prove your eligibility in order to benefit from concessions offered by governments.

Leaving us

You can leave us anytime without incurring any exit fees or penalties. We will terminate your matches to buy or sell energy that go beyond your departure date.

Benefits for Members of Certain Community Groups

We have agreements with organisations where their members obtain certain benefits from us.  Participating customers must remain on the Localvolts market retail agreement and pay their bills on time to enjoy ongoing benefits.

Customer Agents

Customers may appoint certain individuals or companies to act on their behalf in dealing with Localvolts. Appointment of such agents may attract additional fees.

Electricity Plan Descriptions on Energy Made Easy

Regulations require all authorised retailers to register their residential and small business electricity plans with Energy Made Easy, a website operated by the Australian Energy Regulator. Registered plans are recorded and displayed in a standard format to enable people to examine and compare competing offers from multiple retailers.

Localvolts’ marketplace does not conform to the standardised structure imposed by Energy Made Easy; hence the information displayed or produced by the Energy Made Easy website regarding Localvolts does not explain our offering.