Contigo is being kept pretty busy by two large implementation projects it has going on, CEO, Simon Wheeler told me last week. Of the two projects, one had a phase 1 go live in December last year and the other is set for a phase 1 go live on the 1st February. Despite that, he was pleased to report a couple of smaller new wins in the retail segment of the industry late last year, which were essentially spreadsheet replacement projects. All of this activity has meant that recruitment is still a priority for Contigo, and it had hired two more staff in January and is looking to add more, he said. “Contigo is investing a lot at the moment into its products, staff, and integration with sister company eZ-Nergy,” he said. “We are about to publish our product strategy and roadmap update and we intend to continue to push on investing in our products.”
The market for ETRM right now looks a bit mixed according to Simon. “In the UK, smaller companies are struggling a bit while larger entities continue to spend,” he told me. “BREXIT doesn’t seem to have much of an impact so far anyway, but we are experiencing significant price volatility and record-high prices in both the day-ahead market and its Balancing Mechanism. Meanwhile, ACER will start charging its REMIT fees as of March 1st.” Contigo, he added, made all known required BREXIT amendments to its software last year. “For us, eZ-Nergy is a BREXIT hedge as well as it gives us a European office, presence, data center and perspective as well as a sister company that we continue to sell joint deals with.”
The UK power market is experiencing price volatility associated with increased winter demand due to colder weather, lower renewable generation (low wind speeds and less sunlight) combined with a reduced ability to call on fossil fuel backup generation. Only 4 coal-fired units remain as coal generation is shuttered to meet the UK Government’s 2025 no coal target. Natural gas generation has also been impacted as Caton Energy went into administration last year resulting in the closure of three generation facilities. Planned and unplanned maintenance at other UK power stations is also having an impact.
enFlow is also seeing increased interest, Simon told me. enFlow is a flexible automation tool that EnergyOne created and is marketing and has found use cases in areas like PPA agreements, logistics, and so on. ComTech recently published an interview with Ross Attrill about the software, which Contigo will be marketing more vigorously in the coming months.
