SunContract is expanding: our energy marketplace is coming to Croatia soon!

SunContract’s strategic expansion to Croatia marks an important milestone in realizing our vision to create a global energy marketplace (GEM) without intermediaries.

It all started in 2016 with the idea of a platform that would directly connect electricity producers and consumers and allow them to trade electricity. After thorough analysis, studying the technology and legislation, and obtaining all the necessary licenses, we brought this idea to life.

In 2018, we successfully launched the world’s first-ever energy marketplace in Slovenia – the SunContract platform! Since then, we have experienced significant growth every year, and in 2023 we marked our 5th year of successful platform operation. But we’re not resting on our past achievements – even in the summer. We’re actively working on expanding our platform. In addition to the new services we fast-track, we are also expanding into foreign markets.

Transfer of surpluses from Slovenia to Croatia

As of 2018, our team has grown to over 100 full-time members. In addition to our offices in Slovenia and our established balance group in Estonia, we also opened an office in Zagreb, Croatia this year. Our goal is to offer all existing services and solutions of the SunContract platform in Croatia as of the new year 2024.

Things are going according to plans in Croatia, as we have already obtained a license to trade electricity on the Croatian wholesale market in June. With the opening of our balance group, we will become a new active player in Croatia. SunContract will also become an active supplier to end-users of electricity in Croatia in the last quarter of this year, offering them the possibility to use our innovative peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace with various standard supplies and other services and products.

The application for a supplier license will be submitted by our Croatian subsidiary SunContract energija d.o.o.

We expect all necessary documentation and permits will be arranged in the last quarter of this year, which will allow us to start offering all the services of the SunContract energy marketplace in Croatia beginning in 2024. In addition to new opportunities, this will enable users of our platform also to transfer surplus electricity from Slovenia to Croatia or vice versa.

The strategic expansion of SunContract into Croatia marks an important milestone in realizing our vision to build a global energy marketplace (GEM). We want all stakeholders (producers and consumers, large and small) to be able to trade electricity with each other without intermediaries.

We eliminate intermediaries and their fees.

Our energy marketplace is based on blockchain technology, eliminating intermediaries (and their fees) in buying or selling electricity and reducing inefficient costs. We call this system peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, as all stakeholders in a transaction are equal.

This system allows electricity consumers to save on monthly costs as they can buy electricity directly from producers. On the other hand, large business producers who generate electricity for selling, can sell it directly to final consumers. And without the intermediary and its fees, they can sell electricity at higher prices than they otherwise could.

In 2022 alone, more than 11,000 regular users made on our platform 14,000 P2P deals. In addition, we are already supporting around 20 local self-sufficient communities in Slovenia. Among them is the Yaskawa self-sufficient community in Kočevje, for which the SunContract platform enables real-time electricity transfer to a remote unit in Ribnica.

What other solutions does the SunContract platform offer?

On the SunContract platform, the electricity producer and consumer can also enter into an individual agreement, which is concluded directly between the two stakeholders. Individual agreements are meant for producers and consumers who already know each other, including acquaintances, neighbors, or relatives.

Such arrangements take place without publishing the offer on the electricity market. The producer and the consumer agree on the price of the electricity directly through the platform. After a few clicks and the entry of an email address, the deal is done. If both stakeholders agree, they can also make agreements for several months at the same time. In addition, our users can also conclude an individual agreement between their metering points if they have several metering points and are both producers and consumers.

If our users are short of time, they can also leave the management of the activities to us. By opting for our Energy Management Portal, we enable our customers to leave the trading to our traders and thus still benefit from the platform’s advantages without any time investment.

All the while, we are enabling our customers to have full control and electricity consumption tracking on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

In addition, we allow the owners of self-sufficient power plants to freely manage any electricity surpluses they would normally have to leave to the electricity supplier. They can transfer the surpluses to the next calendar year and use them at their point of consumption, thus saving money.

They can also give them to their parents, children, or friends, who use the surpluses at their point of consumption. We have simplified the transfer of surpluses as much as possible, requiring only a few clicks. The only condition for receiving surpluses is that the other party is also a part of the SunContract marketplace, meaning they choose SunContract as their electricity supplier.

More possibilities and new opportunities

As of the new year 2024, all the solutions listed above will also be available in the Croatian market. Thus, we expect a significant increase in the number of users and P2P arrangements, which means even more choices for the SunContract community. A higher number of users also means increased use and flow of our SNC token, which is the basis for all transactions on our platform, including those in euros.

In addition, our users will be able to transfer any surpluses across borders, for example, for use at holiday accommodation in Croatia. Of course, it will also be possible to share in the reverse direction when solar panels generate electricity that would remain unused for most of the year.

Our energy-technology solutions will enable our neighbors to harness more of their potential. We are already looking forward to all the new partnerships and collaborations SunContract’s strategic expansion to Croatia will bring. At the same time, we are already preparing for further expansion into other markets, firstly Estonia, to realize our vision of a global energy marketplace without intermediaries!