Operating in the Localvolts Market – a User’s Guide
Updated August 18, 2022
Localvolts marketplace is designed to give you complete control over your energy purchases and sales, present live data, and be transparent.
This guide was written to give you a basic understanding of how to navigate and get things done in the marketplace.
Market Website
https://market.localvolts.com
We use the term “Market App”, but it is really a special website accessible via any web browser. No need to download anything to your computer or smart phone.
You can access the marketplace via the Localvolts website as well.
Menu Items
My Energy You will find information related to your energy sales and purchases. This is a place for looking only.
Market You will find information about the overall marketplace.
Buy Electricity You go here to purchase your energy from others.
You do not need to do anything if you prefer to buy all your energy from the wholesale spot market operated by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) – you get this by default.
Sell Electricity You go here if you have a generator or a battery, and you want to make offers to sell or share your energy with others.
You do not need to do anything if you prefer to sell all your energy into the wholesale spot market operated by AEMO – you get this by default.
Facilities Information about your properties and generators is here. You can add more facilities to the marketplace. “Add Facility” means you are transferring that property to Localvolts as its electricity retailer.
Tell a Friend You can send a message to your friends or invite them to join Localvolts, and you can track whether they accepted your invitations.
Talk to Localvolts Go here when you want to get in touch with us, have any suggestions, or report any problems.
My Energy
My Position Shows what’s happening right now for all your facilities.
Position Breakdown Profiles elements of costs and revenue for your facilities.
My Activity Details your energy imports and exports with drop menu providing further overlays. “P2P Trades” or “peer-to-peer trades” shows your requests and matches with others.
My Prices Displays energy prices.
My Network Presents a geo-schematic view of where the persons you are dealing with are located on the electricity grid.
My Trades Profiles the buy or sell deals you have done with others, including the energy you are still wishing to trade.
Buying Electricity
It is important to note that you decide the energy portion of your electricity purchases only. All other charges like network charges, metering fees, etc., are added at the end to make up your complete purchase.
I don’t have a preference
Go to “Buy Electricity” >> “Make a purchase” and go through the screens while accepting the default settings. This way you will have access to everyone’s offers, and we will find the best prices to match your energy needs.
Note that the SPOT price is our estimate of its weighted average future value for the period you are buying for. You may wish to use it as a guide if you decide to put an energy price CAP on your purchases.
The CAP function allows you to control the energy price you will accept from others. The CAP does not apply to SPOT energy purchases.
I want to buy from a friend
The second step in your buy process [My Supplier Preference] is where you prioritise your suppliers. Find and select your supplier by typing your friend’s name in the field at the bottom. You can select multiple friends if you wish.
“Who do I want to buy from?” stacks your supplier preferences with the highest priority being at the top. We try to fill all of your energy needs from your top priority supplier. If you still need more, we move on to your second priority supplier, and so on. You can drag-and-drop to adjust the priority stack.
Selling Electricity
Making an offer to sell to everyone
Go to “Sell Electricity” >> “Make an offer” and go through the screens while accepting the default settings.
You will need to enter your offer prices in “Set my pricing rules” on the third step in the process.
You can create multiple price points for your energy you wish to sell to others.
Your offer will be seen by every buyer in the marketplace.
Making a special offer for my friend or a group of persons
The second step in the sell process is where you select your target customers that your offer will apply to. Simply find and select the names of your friends to make them your target customers.
Your special offer will only be available to your friends and no-one else.
Giving Away your Energy
Should you wish to share or give your energy to your family or friends, just create a zero c/kWh price break when setting your prices for that specific person. The beneficiary does not need to know about your special offer or pick you as her/his priority supplier, but s/he must buy energy from “Anyone” at a minimum.
Trading Energy between Your Own Properties
You can set special prices for sales and purchases between your own properties to shift the benefits of energy production from one property to another.
Example 1 – Capture earnings, or set your feed-in rate, at your generation site
Property A has a solar PV and it exports excess energy to the grid. Property B only consumes energy.
Go to “Sell Energy”, pick Property A as the source, and create a positive-priced offer where you are the target customer – you enter your own name when finding and choosing the target customer.
Go to “Buy Energy”, pick Property B as the load, and pick yourself (by name) as the priority supplier.
Your Property B will buy energy from your Property A regardless of the energy price you set.
Example 2 – Sharing your energy
Property A has a solar PV and it exports excess energy to the grid. Property B only consumes energy.
Go to “Sell Energy”, pick Property A as the source, and create a zero-priced offer where you are the target customer – you enter your own name when finding and choosing the target customer.
Go to “Buy Energy”, pick Property B as the load, and pick “Anyone” as the priority supplier.
Your Property B will receive free energy from your Property A.
Example 3 – Obtain a credit at your ‘non-generation’ site
Property A has a solar PV and it exports excess energy to the grid. Property B only consumes energy.
Go to “Sell Energy”, pick Property A as the source, and create a negative-priced offer where the you are the target customer – you enter your own name when finding and choosing the target customer.
Go to “Buy Energy”, pick Property B as the load, and pick “Anyone” as the priority supplier.
Your Property B will receive a credit along with the energy from your Property A. Your Property B will incur a cost for exporting energy.
Renewals
Renewals is a way for you automatically buy or sell your energy on a regular basis without any further intervention by you. You are offered the opportunity to create Renewals after you have completed a Purchase or created an Offer.
Tracking your Purchase Orders, Sell Offers, and Renewals
You can look into these details by examining “Manage renewals” and “Explore trades” in the “Buy Electricity” or “Sell Electricity” drop-down menu items.
Click on the gear icon to see more.