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Energy Trading?
Learn how you can sell back to the grid and save with renewables
Energy Trading FAQs
What is energy trading?
Energy trading is a capability available within RedEarth’s SunRise grid-connected systems. By enabling it and accessing wholesale electricity prices via one of our partner electricity retailers, Amber or Localvolts, your SunRise system will automatically charge when wholesale electricity prices are extremely low, and export when prices are much higher than usual (generally in the evening during peak demand). While it doesn’t trade every day, energy trading aims to significantly reduce the cost of importing electricity from the grid while also improving the feed-in tariffs you receive throughout the day.
What is wholesale?
Energy retailers purchase electricity at a wholesale rate from the spot market. This rate is updated every five minutes and fluctuates depending on demand. Normally, you will be sold this electricity at a rate higher than the average spot market price.
How does my Private Power Plant know when to trade?
Your PPP’s decisions are driven by RedEarth’s algorithm, which takes advantage of market conditions to benefit you. Below are some key features:
Quickly responds to abnormal market conditions to benefit you
If the market enters a volatile state (e.g, if import prices are negative, or energy prices spike) the algorithm drops whatever it is doing to take advantage of the unusual market conditions.
Exports at the highest price peak to maximise your earnings
The algorithm predicts when the next price peak will be and aims to export as much as it can during that peak. This means that even if the price is high all day, it won’t export during the day if there is no battery left for the much larger peak in the evening.
Constantly seeks the day’s lowest prices for importing to minimise your costs
The same logic applies to imports: even if the price is very low, if the algorithm sees that the price will be much lower later on in the day, it will not import early so as to benefit from the day’s lowest price points.
Low battery? No worries!
If your battery is low, the algorithm will import from the grid, then export back at a higher price when the peak hits to take advantage of very localised price arbitrage.
Smart battery charge management, based on historic usage
The algorithm will take your historic usage into account to manage battery charge; for example, stopping export at the battery percentage you typically require to make it through the night on average usage.
Our app continues to evolve, and we continuously make improvements and incorporate more information to predict solar generation. The future is very exciting!
What are the benefits?
If you produce more solar energy than you use, that electricity can be sold back into the grid when wholesale prices are high. This means that you can reduce your energy bill, and potentially make money too!
What are the risks?
Energy trading involves purchasing and selling electricity at wholesale prices depending on what you and the grid require. As with any trading activities, this activity involves inherent risks and all customers must be aware of them.
The biggest risk involved in energy trading is running out of battery while electricity prices are high, requiring you to purchase electricity at high wholesale prices.
Additionally, if your battery is already full but feed-in tariffs are very low, you may be still be exporting to the grid at very low prices. These prices can sometimes even be negative, and if you have uncontrolled PV (through additional solar not tied into and controlled directly by your battery), you may even export into negative feed-in tariffs.
While the algorithm attempts to minimise this risk, it is important to watch your consumption and trading carefully to ensure that everything is operating as you would expect. If you find energy trading is not for you, you can always exit at any time. RedEarth and Amber do not have any lock-in contracts and can be changed immediately.
Is there a fee?
To support the infrastructure and continued refinement of the algorithm, we charge a flat fee. All remaining energy trading value flows directly to you. The current monthly price is $5/per month.
Is my system capable of energy trading?
If you would like us to perform a system check to determine trading capacity, please fill out this form and we will respond in two business days.
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