Virtual Energy Networks: A VPP Alternative

If the idea of handing control of your home battery over to a Virtual Power Plant operator (VPP) doesn’t appeal to you, perhaps participating in a Virtual Energy Network (VEN) will.

The buzz about VPPs is building given the national Cheaper Home Batteries program requires batteries installed under the scheme to be VPP capable; although joining one isn’t compulsory. But VEN programs remain mostly out of the limelight.

The Difference Between A VPP And VEN

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a system that aggregates and centrally controls a group of distributed energy resources such as solar panels and batteries to function like a single power plant. The VPP operator decides when to discharge participating batteries into the grid and when to charge them, in return providing some sort of benefit to the party hosting the battery. You can learn more about the pros and cons of Virtual Power Plants here, and compare VPP programs here.

A Virtual Energy Network (VEN) virtually connects energy consumers and producers such as solar/battery system owners through an online platform, allowing them to share or trade energy within a community, enterprise, or ecosystem (peer-to-peer trading).

There are a few VENs operating in Australia such as Enosi Powertracer via Energy Locals and LocalVolts; so let’s take a look at those.

Powertracer VEN

Energy Locals teamed up with Enosi to offer the Powertracer platform in the ACT, NSW, QLD, SA and VIC. It enables members to buy or trade excess solar energy generation with other members of the Energy Locals Powertracer community. The idea is producers (solar owners) can get more for their exports by setting the price for that electricity, and consumers pay less than usual retailer rates for that electricity.

Energy Locals’ time of use rates and feed-in-tariffs under its Local Member plan apply when there are no available trading partners. In my case, at the time of writing, that would be:

• Membership: $21.49/month
• Daily supply charge: 127.00 c/day
• Consumption: Peak: 41.50 c/kWh , Off Peak: 31.00 c/kWh , Shoulder (Solar Sponge): 25.50 c/kWh
• Feed-in tariff rates: Peak: 15.00 c/kWh, Off Peak:  5.00c/kWh, Solar Sponge 2.00 c/kWh.

(Peak: 6:00am to 9:59am and 4:00pm to 11:59pm, Off-peak 12:00am to 5:59am, Shoulder/Solar Sponge: 10:00am to 3:59pm)

By the way, you don’t have to sell your surplus. If you’re feeling particularly generous, you can gift it to family and friends — but they’ll need to be on the PowerTracer platform too.

There are no exit fees or lock-in contracts with PowerTracer VEN.

Deakin University is carrying out a study evaluating the benefits of peer-to-peer trading of excess rooftop solar energy between customers, and is inviting Energy Locals Enosi Powertracer Plan members to participate.

LocalVolts VEN

LocalVolts is another electricity marketplace where you can buy and sell electricity from/to others. Residential and business customers in the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania can participate in selling and buying to/from:

• The wholesale market.
• The peer-to-peer market at prices you set.
• A chosen customer at an agreed price.

You’ll need to switch to LocalVolts as your electricity retailer.

For residential customers, it costs $1.10 per day participate, and that’s just about it from the LocalVolts end¹.  All other prices, costs and charges, including those charged by the local distributor for accessing the electricity network are applied on a pass-through basis.

LocalVolts’ VEN wouldn’t be for the faint-of-heart, reportedly can be fiddly to set up and requires some ongoing effort.

For both buyers and sellers, during periods where buy/sell preferences are not set (or met), their electricity is purchased from or sold to the wholesale electricity spot market.

Wholesale electricity market rates can go as high as $20.30 per kilowatt-hour this financial year during extreme events, which is the National Electricity Market’s (NEM’s) market price cap (MPC). But when pricing is negative — something becoming more common in some regions² — you’ll be paid to consume. However, you’ll pay to export solar electricity when wholesale prices are negative.

There are no lock-in contracts or exit fees with LocalVolts’ VEN.

Without actually participating and seeing a VEN in practice, it’s hard to gauge how good (or otherwise) being part of one could be, but the Deakin PowerTracer study will shed light on some of the pros and cons of VEN participation. Both these services have their fans and critics, and perhaps LocalVolts/Powertracer members will weigh in with their experiences in the comments section below.

Another alternative that isn’t a VEN, but isn’t quite a VPP (although considered as such under some rebate schemes) is Amber for Batteries. We’ve written quite a bit about Amber over the years, so I’ll leave it to someone who’s actually using the service (SolarQuotes’ Jono) to share his Amber experience.