Studley-based ENER-G Procurement has introduced new technology
to help businesses reap the rewards of flexible energy
purchasing.
"The energy market is more volatile than equities or foreign
exchange, yet companies often rely on primitive tools to monitor
market movements and make very large transactions", said Mark
Alston, General Manager of ENER-G Procurement.
ENER-G Procurement's new RiskManager™ software monitors
wholesale market prices in real time, automatically tracking,
recording and reporting market movements as they happen to support
decision making.
The company's analysts work closely with customers to develop a
personalised purchasing and risk management strategy and a detailed
implementation programme. RiskManager™ then automatically
prompts for action, based on this strategy, helping the analysts to
fine-tune each transaction.
"By projecting market activity and tracking live evolution of
the price curve throughout the day, our technology helps us to
anticipate actions, and then identify the most opportune time to
place trades for our customers," said Mark Alston.
Alston continued: "Unlike other energy brokers' systems,
RiskManager™ removes the human error of position monitoring,
automatically alerting our team when a customer's limit or trigger
is approaching.
"It's all about precision timing and informed negotiation. A
failure to act in real time can mean budget limits are exceeded or
price opportunities missed. Our analysts are able to see the
second-by-second evolution of a market price, and are provided with
prompts on the required action specific to each customer."
This helps to ensure energy volumes are purchased (or excess
generation is sold) when market prices are most advantageous, while
an in-depth knowledge of live market trades and price history means
ENER-G's market specialists can negotiate from a strong position on
the final price.
He continued: "Unlike competitors' manual systems, which are
constrained in the detail they track and require continuous
'eyes-on' market monitoring, our technology automatically checks
all client triggers against live market prices and gives our
analysts instant SMS and email alerts whenever individual triggers
are hit. We believe this offers our clients market-leading
assurance that their agreed flexible purchasing strategy is always
protected. It also provides reassurance to more risk-averse
customers who have previously opted for fixed energy
contracts.
"Another major point of difference with RiskManager™ is
that we demonstrate any previous trade in the context of the market
on the date and time it took place. This gives total transparency
to all our wholesale purchasing negotiations and acts as a quality
check on our procurement efficiency. It also allows us to do a
'Trade Audit' for any historic purchases made by a previous broker
or supplier. We're now offering a free trade audit to let energy
buyers see how effective this tool can be."