Frequently Asked Questions

Community Energy is a Virtual Power System where Energy is renewably generated and consumed within a local community environment. Community Energy is operated by a community group, called a Collective and is facilitated by Circular Energy and The People’s Grid.

Collectives are the name we call a group that creates an energy offer on The People’s Grid. They may be a sports club, a community energy group, a neighbourhood, or a solar farm that wants to sell back to a community.

Collectives build an energy offer they promote to their members via a dedicated profile page. The entire process is facilitated by The People’s Grid and Circular Energy which you can think of as an online shopfront for energy.

The People’s Grid is an energy marketplace with locally sourced renewables and the community in mind. Our goal is to match as much renewable energy sourced from the community. This can even include the rooftop solar from our members.

Customers sign up to The People’s Grid through an aligned energy group called a Collective. Collectives source their energy from local renewable generators and then offer this to customers at great prices through a dedicated profile page. The profile page is where members can sign up as customers buying their energy from generators aligned to their Collective.

Circular Energy is the Electricity Retailer facilitating the entire system. A retailer is required to hold a license to sell electricity to the marketplace and there are many rules and regulations to comply with to acquire and keep this license. Circular Energy has built the new Circular Energy Economy by helping local renewable generators supply to local communities via the Collectives which in turn gives back to the community – creating a circular economy.

Our whole model is built around sourcing renewable energy from local generators, so that includes Solar Farms, Wind Farms or Bio-Energy.

The Energy we source is from local generators, including from Solar and Wind farms or Bio-energy plants. Our mission is to always source from these renewable sources. However, the transition to affordable renewable electricity is complex and therefore it won’t be possible to match the community group fully with renewables from day 1. Moving forward together, we’ll build towards 100% sourced renewables.

This will be available on the Circular Energy and The People’s Grid websites. You can search for Collectives in your area and there will be many more Collectives coming online over time or you can simply join an existing collective even if it isn’t local to you.  

You will still use your own Solar and Battery power first and anything you consume in addition to that will be from Community Energy sources. You will still continue to receive a Feed-in Tariff for any electricity you export. This electricity will be used by the Collective who can also become a Generator and benefit as a Generator and a Collective.

Yes. When people take up the offer to join The People’s Grid through your Collective, they will switch over to your new retailer, Circular Energy.

You can opt out of Community Energy at any time, there is no lock-in contract, but you will need to find a new retailer.

The Collective groups will always be looking for new projects or ways to give back to their community. It’s in their nature, it’s why they exist.

We believe that any project that gives something back to the community is worthwhile. It could be a new playground, sport lights or new uniforms. By supporting the Collective you’re also supporting local renewable generators.  

Collectives are driven by social impact for their community and earn money by charging as little as $1 per week to residential customers or $3 per week to business customers. That’s 14c or 43c a day to support renewable energy and your community. This money goes directly to the Collective for their social impact project.

Unlike other retailers we do not support or supply gas. Gas is an un-renewable source and it’s up to all of us to slow down the use of Gas in our homes and businesses in Australia and thankfully Governments have also started to phase out and outlaw Gas appliances.