In our last article on procurement models, we look at one last way in which industrial, medium-sized and commercial companies can procure and manage their electricity or gas. It's about portfolio management. A purchasing strategy that can be very individualised and highly complex and is basically suitable for companies with an annual energy consumption of 100 gigawatt hours - so we will only go into the basic points of this method here to give you a rough idea of this purchasing model and to conclude our series of possible procurement models (see our three other previously published articles on fixed price, tranche and spot market).

What is portfolio management?

Portfolio management in the electricity and gas sector refers to the management of a company's energy requirements. As a rule, this procurement model is used by companies with an annual consumption of around 100 gigawatt hours or more (note: since the energy crisis, energy suppliers have been offering this contract model to customers with an annual consumption of around 20 - 30 GWh or more per medium).

Portfolio management does not involve structured procurement in the sense that, for example, less energy is required at night and hardly any at weekends. Standard trading products are fixed; these are annual, seasonal, quarterly and monthly bands that are traded on the futures market. For season (gas only) there is a summer season (2nd + 3rd quarter) and a winter season (4th + 1st quarter of the following year). Base and peak bands can generally be ordered for electricity procurement in order to balance out higher demand for electricity during the daytime hours (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) from Monday to Friday against significantly lower demand at night and at weekends. In the case of gas, there is only the baseload, as a quantity is billed per day and not per hour, as is the case with electricity. Fixing takes place in megawatts (MW) and always before the start of delivery, either of the year, the quarter or the month. "Blocks" of energy are procured, so to speak, i.e. a constant output for the respective period - depending on the individual purchase structure (load profile).

Portfolio management

Non-fixed quantities of electricity or gas are purchased by the supplier on the spot market and excess quantities (surplus cover) are resold on the spot market. The difference is known as the residual quantity. The work per month is invoiced by multiplying the output by the hours of the month and the costs of the respective band.

Digital mapping with an energy platform

With enPORTAL connect, the entire portfolio management can be managed and organised using the energy platform. A large competition of up to 700 energy suppliers on the energy marketplace guarantees the best possible contractual conditions for portfolio management. In the graphical representation and the time-based overviews, we show the energy prices at the time of purchase for the respective delivery periods. Automated processes and visualisations make it easier to monitor consumption data, costs and contracts. With enPORTAL connect, for example, we can calculate the costs for the spot market share for electricity on an hourly basis and for gas on a daily basis after importing the load profile data for a delivered month. This makes the efficient implementation of portfolio management much easier today than it was a few years ago, as many new opportunities have arisen in the course of digitalisation.

The company-specific organisation of portfolio management in particular means that it is important to check which purchasing strategy is most suitable. It is advisable to consult an energy expert who can assess the respective options depending on the energy consumption and company structure. This is exactly where our customer advisor team supports our customers, so please contact us with your questions or for further information. We will be happy to give you a live demonstration of how portfolio management can be organised with enPORTAL connect.

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