5 Ways in Which Data Can Help Make Better Energy Procurement Decisions
Tags: Energy, Renewable Energy, Energy Transition, Energysourcing, Ppas

The role of an Energy Procurement Manager is becoming more diverse and complex. We discuss how getting energy data directly from the source of production can help an Energy Procurement Manager achieve their goals. Access to energy data is key to meeting renewable energy targets whilst keeping energy costs down.

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The role of a corporate energy procurement manager has changed over the years. Traditionally, the role would’ve been more straightforward — having responsibility for signing contracts with energy suppliers, risk-managing commodity prices, and managing the overall energy budget. The role has evolved since then, with renewable energy purchasing also becoming a core part of the job.

As renewable energy purchasing is a complex field with many different options such as Renewable Energy Certificates and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s), it can be difficult for a procurement manager to make informed decisions. To combat this, it’s becoming ever more important to have real-time access to high-quality energy data. There are many ways to get energy data but having a direct feed from the generation source ensures quick access and high-levels of integrity and reliability.

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5 benefits of getting energy data direct from the source

For an energy procurement manager, getting renewable energy generation data directly from the source has many benefits. Accuracy and reliability are obvious examples — once data starts to pass through the hands of different teams, suppliers etc. it can start to lose reliability. In some cases, energy managers can’t even access their entire set of data, due to third parties bottlenecks. But there are many other examples that are directly relevant to an energy procurement manager and should make his/her job easier.

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Tracking Share of Renewable Energy — Energy Procurement Managers will typically take direction from senior leadership within a company on the high-level renewable energy targets. He/She will need oversight of progress towards targets to ensure the purchasing strategy is aligned to this. Direct access to renewable energy generation data will give an energy procurement manager real-time visibility of a company’s renewable energy share and how it compares to targets.

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Forecasting RE Certificate Shortfalls — A procurement manager will need to purchase renewable energy that aligns with company targets on an ongoing basis. This can be difficult to manage as both power consumption and power generation can be variable on an annual basis. Take the example of a traditional style as-generated PPA. A low wind year or operational issues would lead to lower wind power generated and therefore lower amount of renewable certificates. This would need to be compensated with a market purchase of certificates. Direct access to generation data would allow the buyer to easily forecast shortfalls in renewables certificates and position the buying strategy appropriately.

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Invoice & Contract Validation — Once an energy contract or PPA is signed with a supplier, it would be great to forget about the contract until it’s up for renewal again. Unfortunately, this is not possible. Billing errors are common in the energy sector so good oversight is needed to avoid overcharging/undercharging of energy costs. Taking a PPA as an example, getting data directly from the energy generator can allow the buyer to easily estimate the monthly invoice. This can be then cross-referenced with the actual invoice to easily identify errors in the billing.

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Assess Matching Effectiveness of PPA’s — “Hourly matching” is the concept of matching power consumed in real-time with renewable energy produced in the exact same hour. This method has the potential to be the gold standard for impactful green procurement, and has Google as one of its early adopters.These companies are already participating in an industry-led, non-profit initiative to create a standard for hourly energy certificates, Energy Tag.

Find out the other benefits in the full article