Dev. Update: New Electricity Management Portal
Partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Dear SunLovers,
When developing the SunContract platform, we had one goal in mind: to give energy customers control over their energy-related decisions by creating a myriad of possibilities — using blockchain. Some of the possibilities that arose from developing the platform include:
- Direct agreements between electricity customers (producers and consumers)
- Transfer of electricity surpluses to loved ones
- Sourcing of preferred renewable energy options to power one’s household/business
- Increased profits for producers and reduced costs for electricity consumers who could now define their buying and selling prices and set respective orders on our electricity marketplace
However, with every opportunity, presents a challenge.
For us, the challenge was that some of our electricity producers did want to reap the benefits of using the SunContract electricity marketplace, but they simply did not have the time to be making P2P deals by themselves.
Similarly, our consumers wanted to maximize their electricity cost -reductions, but not everyone had the time to monitor marketplace activities and trade with peers to secure the lowest electricity prices on the market.
We knew we had to solve this problem. And so we did..!
Introducing: SunContract Energy Management Portal
We’re thrilled to introduce to you our latest development: The SunContract Energy Management Portal. Thanks to the development of this portal, energy customers who do not have the time to monitor and manage their energy-related activities now have the opportunity to delegate this work to traders — who will be the active service providers that will be using the portal to perform trades on behalf of their clients.
The operation is carried out under Priority Investment: 1.2: “Encouraging enterprise investment in research and innovation and establishing links and synergies between companies, R&D centers and the higher education sector, in particular by promoting investment in product development and services, technology transfer, social and eco-innovation, public service applications, stimulating demand, networking, clusters and open innovation through smart specialization and supporting technological and applied research, pilot lines, early product evaluation measures, advanced production facilities and first production, in particular in the field of key enabling technologies and the dissemination of common technologies.
Overview of Portal Features:
1. Dashboard:
The Dashboard, just like all other dashboards, will combine the service provider’s client data overview in one screen, showing the:
- total number of active electricity clients they are servicing,
- total number of confirmed clients,
- authorized clients, and
- those whose confirmation is pending.
This section will also notify the service provider in the event that an update is required or some funds are missing from their clients’ account for them to settle a transaction.
2. Members:
This section will show a list of all of the service provider’s member clients. (As mentioned above, clients are energy customers who seek to reap the benefits of the platform but want to play a passive role by delegating the trading activities to a service provider.)
This section will also indicate:
- an overview of the funds in each client account,
- their registration status and
- registration date on the portal.
An edit button is available in this section for the service provider to update client information on the portal.
3. Contracts:
Service providers can find client contracts in this section. The contracts section will include meter owner information, respective member, type of contract (production, consumption or net-metering) as well as the contract status.
- Signed contracts will be indicated by status: “Signed”
- Pending contracts will be indicated by status: “Waiting”
- Signed contracts that have been approved will be indicated by status: “Confirmed”
4. Groups:
The purpose of this groups section is to simplify the tasks of the service provider. In this section, the service provider can classify different members into specific groups. For example, he can classify his clients into groups of households, commercial customers, and industrial-scale customers. This can then allow him to manage the activities of each group collectively, with only one click of a button!
As an example, he can set an order and apply it to all of the clients belonging to group <<Households>> shown below:
5. Marketplace:
Marketplace — which most might consider the most important section in the portal, is where the service provider can access all the orders on the SunContract Energy Marketplace, and identify the ones worth accepting on behalf of clients.
In the example below, the service provider’s customer is an energy producer. This means that the service provider will be monitoring the orders of energy consumers to identify the opportunities for the producer client to get the most value for their surplus energy.
In addition to having a consumers orders section, the service provider also has access to other producer orders on the marketplace — to give him an idea of what others are bidding for the same consumers on the marketplace.
Additionally, service providers can access all the confirmed P2P marketplace agreements that they previously have made on behalf of their clients, and can cancel them if need be (due to shortage of funds in the client’s account, or better deals to take advantage of on the energy marketplace.)
6. Reporting & Documents:
Last but not least, the Reporting section provides a downloadable Excel-format report on coverage whereas the Documents section of the menu has a downloadable template list of all the documents that the service provider will need in order to get their client started.
For exampe, if the service provider has a prospective business consumer client, then, they will need to send the client the Business Consumption Contract for them to sign and wait for confirmation. The same holds for all other types of clients.
There are 4 different contract templates we have prepared for service providers to get their clients started. The contracts vary based on the nature of the client:
- Production Contract
- Business Consumption Contract
- Net-metering Contract
- Household Consumption Contract
Who will provide these services to energy customers?
As of now, this energy management service will be offered by SONCE — partner of SunContract, as well as smaller proprietorship traders who will partner with SunContract to meet the demand for this service in the market.
What’s in it for the Service Provider?
Service providers will enter a compensation agreement with each of their clients — stipulating their fee structure. For example, if the client is a consumer, the service provider and client can agree on a percentage split on all additional savings that arise due to the activities of the service provider on the portal. Similarly, if the client is a producer, then the service provider and client can agree on a percentage split on increased earnings as a result of the provider’s activities on the portal (this is just an example).
So far, we are very satisfied with the functionality of this portal. It has proven to be an indespensable asset for our partnering service providers as it simplifies and automates many of their tasks so that they can manage the electricity activities of multiple clients with ease. We believe that the development of this portal will also create employment opportunities for interested traders.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all parties who have made the development of this portal possible. A special thanks goes out to the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund, as well as to the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia — Gregor Novak, CEO of SunContract
That’s it for now SunLovers. Until next time! 👋
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