Energy One Ltd is an Australian ETRM and related software vendor that has thrived in its domestic market and is only one of two public companies in the space (the other being Brady PLC). In fact, Energy One went public back in 2007 and today has revenues in excess of $5m according to its financial disclosures. It sells a range of software products that include the Wholesale Energy Suite, Energy Business Intelligence, Energy Cloud and others catering for electric power, natural gas and associated environmental instruments. Last week, I spoke with Mr. Shaun Ankers, CEO and had a short demo of the Energy One Trading ETRM platform.
Mr. Ankers told me that around 35% of the Australian electricity market goes through the product and that the company can boast two of the Australian Big 4 companies (the other two using a combination of proprietary and in house software) and a significant portion of the second tier in that market. With recent developments, the Company’s software also controls the transmission trading for 40% of that country’s gas. While American vendors are also present in the market and have a couple of accounts there, the major competitor is in house development. EnergyOne acquired the system that was developed by a trading manager who decided they could do it better and Energy One has enhanced and supported the system going forward. “It’s a best of breed story and we can implement in weeks not months,” Mr. Ankers told me.
The software has a web-enabled user interface with a reasonable amount of graphics and appears straightforward to use. I was particularly impressed with the systems configurability that includes going down to trading intervals of 5 minutes if required. It has robust security at the person/role/screen level and uses templates for capturing the different types of instruments prevalent in the Australian market. From a risk perspective, it includes a whole host of tools such as VaR, EaR, credit risk, sensitivity analysis and more and the calculations are performed very rapidly. The system also includes comprehensive support for settlements, reporting and so on. One area that I found impressive was the workflow. The system uses configurable workflow to control processes and adds a layer of security and audit capability.
Although, there are Australian market specifics (deal types, market structure etc.), the system is configurable and in my opinion, could be used in other regions without major overhaul. So far however, Energy One has preferred to stay close to its home market citing barriers to entry for potential competitors. Overall, this is an impressive ETRM solution that can be made available in the cloud or traditionally on premises.
