Red Earth PPP Program

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 Amber, your SunRise system will automatically charge when prices are extremely low and export when prices are much higher than usual (generally in the evening). While it doesn’t trade every day, energy trading aims to significantly reduce the cost of importing electricity while also improving the feed-in tariffs you receive throughout the day.

What is Wholesale?

Energy retailers purchase electricity at a wholesale rate, called the spot market. This rate is updated every 30 minutes and fluctuates depending on the demand for renewables. Normally, you will be sold this energy at a flat- rate – usually at a higher range than the average spot market price.

How does my Private Power Plant know when to Trade?

Your PPP’s decisions are driven by our algorithm, which takes advantage of market conditions to benefit you. Below are some key features:

Quickly responds to abnormal conditions to benefit you

If the market enters a volatile state (for example, if import prices go negative, or energy prices spike) the algorithm drops whatever it is doing to take advantage of the unusual market conditions.

Focuses on exporting at the highest price peak to maximise your earnings

The algorithm predicts where 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.

If your battery is low, 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 and 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. We are continuing to evolve, making improvements and incorporating more information to predict solar generation – the future is very exciting!

What are the Benefits?

If you produce more solar than you use, that energy can be sold back into the grid when wholesale prices are high. This means that not only can you reduce your energy bill, but you can 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 during a high price event, requiring you to purchase electricity at high wholesale prices. Additionally, if your battery is full and feed-in tariffs are very low, you may still export into very low prices. These prices can sometimes even go 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 – neither our algorithm nor Amber 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 (August 2022) monthly price is $5/per month.

How do I Sign Up?

Currently, Amber Electric is the only retailer who provides wholesale electricity prices. We require that you have stable internet and get an account with Amber. Below are the steps on how to sign up to Amber so we can access your wholesale prices and enable energy trading on your behalf.

1. Join Amber
2. Once you have successfully created an account, we will need to access your Amber Key. Login using your Amber details
3. Click the ‘For Developers’ tab, and ‘Enable’ in the button for Developer mode.
4. In API TOKENS. Click on ‘Generate a new token’
5. This token will need to be copied and pasted into your account on the RedEarth EMU app. To access the energy trading form, go to Settings, tap on the Energy Trading toggle and enter your Amber Key into the text box.