OpenZEV User Guide

Welcome to the OpenZEV user documentation. This guide covers everything you need to operate and manage energy communities (ZEVs) with OpenZEV.

Getting Started

• Getting Started — Demo and production installation (Docker Compose, Kubernetes), creating the first admin account, and demo accounts
• Understanding Roles and Permissions — Learn about admin, ZEV owner, participant, and guest roles

Planning

• vZEV Feasibility Calculator — Estimate savings, payback, ROI, and the producer/consumer split before founding a ZEV

Setting Up Your ZEV Community

• ZEV Setup and Configuration — Create and configure your first ZEV
• Managing Participants — Add, edit, and manage community members
• Metering Points — Types, configuration, and validation

Operations and Data Management

• Metering Imports — CSV/Excel and SDAT-CH import workflows
• Metering Analysis — Charting, filtering, and data quality checks
• Tariff Configuration — Set up tariffs, periods, and pricing, or import them from your grid operator

Billing and Invoicing

• How Energy Allocation and Billing Works — Understand the timestamp-level allocation model
• Invoice Management — Lifecycle, PDF generation, tracking, participant access links, and yearly reports (annual statements, tax overviews)
• Email Configuration — Templates, delivery, and resend behavior

Administration

• Platform Administration — ZEV management, accounts, regional settings, VAT, PDF templates, email templates, feature flags — grouped in the sidebar under Platform
• ZEV Export and Import — Move a whole community between instances as an archive
• Backups — Back up the instance or one community to local or S3 storage, encrypted and verifiable

Automation

• API Keys — Long-lived credentials for calling the API from a script

Reference

• Troubleshooting — Common issues and solutions
• Glossary — Terms and concepts used in OpenZEV

Navigating the Interface

OpenZEV is organized by role:

Admins have access to:

• Account and user management
• Regional and VAT settings
• Admin dashboard with operational KPIs

ZEV Owners can:

• Manage their ZEV's settings and preferences
• Import and manage metering data
• Configure tariffs and invoicing
• Generate and send invoices
• Track participant information

Participants can:

• View their own metering data and consumption
• Download and review their invoices
• Access their account profile

Need Help?

• Check the Troubleshooting section
• Review the Glossary for key terms
• Consult the specific workflow guide for your task