A prosumer community is formed by a group of households, companies and other entities that come together to use its distributed energy systems, such as PV plants or energy storage devices, more efficiently. The members of these communities are both producers and consumers - therefore a prosumer. For example, households with solar power on their roofs can provide their excess electricity to the community and purchase electricity from the community to compensate for any deficits.

Electricity of clear origin is local, green energy with a proven source thanks to our direct contracts with plant owners. While electricity purchased through green tariffs is green on paper, it often doesn't really impact the local energy transition - for example if it is purchased from Norwegian wind turbines. Lumenaza offers consumers the opportunity to buy green electricity from a local community, assuring them that it is produced nearby. The origin of the electricity is clear to consumers and, because the distance between the electricity producer and consumer is short, the grid is less burdened.

In contrast to centralized energy supply, distributed energy is provided by smaller plants, such as photovoltaic or wind power plants, located close to consumers. The energy is generated directly where it is consumed, rather than being fed through the national grid from a remote power plant.This helps avoid transmission losses and reduces CO2 emissions.

In Germany, Lumenaza offers an e-mobility tariff that can be up to 25% less expensive than traditional household tariffs due to § 14a of the German Energy Act. 

However, this is only the beginning. In the future, the power grid and charging infrastructure will be intelligently networked. Initially, this will enable better management of electricity flows and allow surplus energy to be fed back into the grid, unlocking price-optimized charging and vehicle-to-grid technologies. Electric cars could then be used as flexible electricity storage for the home and help with grid efficiency and peak shaving, contributing to the optimal use of renewables and stable grid operation. Ideally, it will then be permissible to use part of the car's battery as flexible storage. Using electric vehicles for storage will contribute to the complete energy transition, while drivers will receive a truly convenient and affordable solution.

In the energy sector, flexibility refers to the ability to react to fluctuations in the energy market to balance any difference between electricity production and consumption. An example of this is a PV plant that produces electricity depending on hours of sunshine and not when electricity is needed. Flexibilities help to balance the differences between supply and demand and stabilize the power grid. Flexibilities can be used, for example, by coordinating the temporal demand for energy with the help of software. Such targeted control is known as load control or demand side response.

Demand side response (DSR), also known as demand side management, refers to the systematic management of energy demand, including electricity consumption. Instead of generating more energy in short periods of particularly high energy demand, DSR can be used to intelligently control energy consumption. For example, the frozen food sections of supermarkets can be switched off for short periods, or energy-intensive factories can shift their production to times when the energy network is less heavily loaded. 

With cloud computing, IT infrastructure is accessible via the internet. Instead of hosting your IT infrastructure on your own servers, it lives on a range of remote servers, reducing costs and increasing security. Lumenaza's open and modular cloud-based platform fully complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Producers, consumers and prosumers all benefit from being part of a prosumer community. Producers can always obtain a higher price for their electricity through aggregation than with the fixed feed-in tariff. Consumers receive electricity of clear origin and can choose smart tariffs, while prosumers profit from both.

Companies that build prosumer communities help their customers maximize the value of distributed, green systems such as PV, batteries, EVs and electric heating and cooling, reducing their energy costs. This increases customer loyalty and promotes community cohesion and sustainability. Companies benefit from EU regulations that support prosumer communities.

Additionally, companies can also create innovative and profitable new business by offering their customers flat rates, subscription models, usage- and time-based tariffs and peer-to-peer sharing models.

Prosumer communities can also contribute to grid stability by using flexibilities and including small plants in small-scale aggregation.