Preparing to Enter the Single Electric
Market
Ambition
Airtricity is a world leading renewable energy company,
developing and operating wind farms in Ireland, the United Kingdom
and the United States. As an integrated utility, the company is
both a generator and supplier of green electricity and currently
supplies green electricity to approximately 45,000 commercial
customers in Ireland.
On the 1st November 2007 a new all-island wholesale electricity
market was established in Ireland. The Single Electricity Market
(SEM) is a gross pool market, into which all electricity generated
on or imported onto the island of Ireland must be sold, and from
which all wholesale electricity for consumption on or export from
the island of Ireland must be purchased.
The introduction of the SEM resulted in the need for many
process and system changes to allow the participants of this new
market to operate within the newly defined market rules and
processes.
To prepare themselves for this new market, Airtricity put a
change programme in place to deliver the necessary business
changes.
Looking to supplement the delivery capacity of their SEM change
programme, and help ensure the required changes would be in place
for market opening, Airtricity engaged VISION to manage a number of
the key work streams of their SEM Change Programme.
Enter VISION
VISION were deployed and tasked with defining and mobilising a
number of the key projects. Specifically, VISION managed the
following:
Energy trading & Risk Management -
Implementation and mobilisation of a new Energy Trading & Risk
Management system that supported best practice trading and risk
management.
SEM Retail - Implementation and mobilisation of
retail system and process enhancements that would allow Airtricity
to continue to communicate with the market in accordance with the
new market rules and processes.
SEM Wholesale (NI & ROI) - Implementation
and mobilisation of wholesale systems and processes that would
support financial settlement, re-allocation, cash and credit
management in accordance with the new market rules and
processes.
Programme Test Management -
Implementation and execution of a test programme that would provide
stakeholders with the confidence that the business can operate in
the new electricity market.
Responsibilities undertaken by VISION
included:
- Project initiation and mobilisation
- Project and program planning
- Budget management
- Key risk management
- Airtricity representation at market forums
- Vendor management
Value Delivered
Faced with fast approaching deadlines VISION provided immediate
impact on deployment, through rapid definition and mobilisation of
projects in support of the Airtricity Programme Management. Teams
were mobilised, and approaches to delivery defined and implemented
taking a pragmatic and realistic view on the conflicts between
business requirements, quality, cost and timescales.
VISION's impact would be typified as
bringing:
- Customer focus
- Close co-ordination across a multi-disciplined &
multi-sourced team
- Rapid design and mobilisation of projects
- Pragmatic emphasis on issue resolution
- Agility and fleet of foot to an evolving market
- Strong project governance
Through the involvement of VISION, Airtricity successfully
entered the new Single Electricity Market on 1st November 2007.
Client satisfaction
"VISION was known to us as being a company that could
deliver results although we had not used them prior to this
engagement - we made initial contact and Vision mobilised very
quickly and professionally. The calibre of their team was
exceptional - they engaged well and brought experience and
knowledge to the broader programme resulting in a successfully
delivered business-critical project."
Paul Richardson, Head of Project Delivery, Airtricity
).