OpenZEV User Guide

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

Sorting tables

Most record tables let you sort by clicking a column heading—for example, Participant in Energy balance or Billing, and Document in Documents. Click again to reverse the direction, and once more to restore the original order. Sorts use the underlying values, so amounts are ordered numerically. An arrow shows the selected sort direction. Action columns cannot be sorted.

Sort controls appear only with at least two filtered rows. Filtering down to one row preserves the selected order for when more rows return. On phones, sortable headings remain above the record cards. Calculation layouts such as invoice line items and the hour/minute readings grid keep their fixed order.

Getting Started

• Getting Started — Demo and production installation (Docker Compose, Kubernetes), creating the first admin account, and demo accounts
• Understanding Roles and Permissions — Admins and users, and access per community as manager, viewer or participant

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
• Your Own Energy Data — Connect Solar Manager or push your own system's data so a PV system behind the meter shows its real self-sufficiency
• Analytics and Grafana (beta) — Read your metering data (local, grid, feed-in) from Grafana, a spreadsheet or a script, scoped to what you may see
• AI Assistants (MCP) — Connect Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or n8n to ask questions about your own OpenZEV data

Reference

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

Navigating the Interface

OpenZEV is organized by what you may do in each community:

Admins have access to:

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

Managers 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