Article by Dr David Mutch & Anthony Price A Local Energy Market (LEM) is an intuitively simple idea. A consumer is using energy; their neighbour’s solar panel is generating surplus. Instead of selling this surplus to a supplier, who then sells it back to their neighbour, the generator sells direct to their neighbour. The generator gets a better price, incentivising renewable generation and benefitting the environment, their neighbour gets cheaper energy, and the varying price of electricity encourages energy generation and consumption at times of day that benefit the distribution network.