I recently had the opportunity to get an update from Shailesh Mishra, VP at Power Costs Inc. (PCI) in which we discussed PCI’s 2020 results, the outlook for 2021, and get his take on new market drivers that are either accelerating or just now beginning to take hold.
Regarding 2020 results, he indicated the company had a record year in terms of revenues, including a substantial contribution from their ETRM product which landed almost a dozen new customers, despite a year of a global pandemic and resulting lockdown. Mr. Mishra indicated they experienced little interruption to ongoing projects during the year and were able to quickly pivot their deployment methodologies to fully remote/web delivered. New customers for their ETRM solution during the year included numerous independent power producers and utilities, with several of those new deals being replacements of the largest legacy systems that had been in place for years, including displacing ION-Openlink at a large federal power entity.
PCI also saw significant activity in the renewables space, including signing a large global renewables firm who purchased PCI’s solutions to manage wind, renewable asset integration and risk applications across their operations.
In terms of drivers in the market in 2021 and forward, he said they are seeing particular interest in cloud-based solutions (a trend likely accelerated by the lockdowns), data management including data lakes, and significant interest in the renewables credit markets, particularly those in the western states of the US. Cloud security is also emerging as a growing concern, and particularly with the federal power entities, as the widespread adoption of cloud-based solutions accelerates. Additionally, he noted a growing interest in solutions for the operational and commercial management of batteries and distributed generation…a trend that will likely accelerate given recent events in ERCOT and surrounding markets.
Mr. Mishra also noted that he believed the ION consolidation of the largest legacy systems has boosted PCI’s business as prospects and customers are seeking new technologies and assurances of vendor stability. As he said, “The power and energy markets are growing and reshaping, forcing companies to rethink their IT strategies. With the recent consolidation of so many vendors, companies are either actively seeking alternative solutions or are looking at how to grow their capabilities without growing their reliance on the older legacy systems. As a privately held company, we aren’t trying to grow as rapidly as possible, we are more focused on developing new capabilities for our clients and ensuring we meet their expectations.”
Outside of the US, PCI has also been successfully in growing their international presence, with customers in Europe, Australia, and now in Central and South America, where several countries are seeking to modernize and digitalize their power infrastructures and grow their renewable resources. He noted, “From the relatively mature and sophisticated power markets of Chile to the simpler structure in Columbia, we’ve been able to bring a number of capabilities to those markets regardless of their relative maturity, including native language support in our products and solutions designed to help them digitalize their markets and better integrate renewable assets.”
In all, it does seem that PCI is continuing to build on their previous successes in moving outside the physical power asset management space. With the US and global energy markets continuing to transition to renewables and energy storage solutions, the awareness of PCI’s technically sophisticated market solutions, including their ETRM capabilities, continues to grow as well. With their success in building a base of referenceable clients in Europe, Australia, and Central & South America, we do anticipate they will become a strong competitor in many, if not most ETRM power and fuels deals around the globe.
