Centrica Energy, the UK’s largest supplier of residential gas and electricity, has completed implementation of software and workflow automation solutions for short-term and long-term power optimization from Power Costs, Inc. (PCI). The implementation of the PCI system spans four business areas within Centrica’s Power Business Unit and was completed in just over six months.
“Our objective was to procure and implement a single comprehensive decision-support system that provides optimization analytics for our short-term operations and long-term hedging of our asset and load portfolios,” said Sarwjit Sambhi, Centrica energy director, Power Business Unit. “We partnered with PCI to meet this objective, and have successfully completed implementation of their system, which is now helping us achieve the lowest possible overall cost by optimally scheduling our generation resources and suggesting trading strategies that take advantage of any profit-making opportunities. We will receive significant value from the PCI system through optimization of our complex portfolio of multiple combined-cycle power stations, bilateral contracts, brokered trades, and markets.”
Centrica’s implementation of the PCI Generation Supply Management System (GSMS) includes PCI GenTrader for short- and long-term power portfolio optimization and PCI GenPortal for business process management and deployment of customized processes. One of the highlights of the implementation was the development of PCI Deal Analyst, which optimally fills an open or residual position with available trade products for a given short- or long-term time horizon. Together, the PCI products will enable Centrica to extract maximum value from their portfolio and markets in which they operate.
“The PCI system architecture has allowed us to meet some core objectives in providing our business with an adaptable enterprise infrastructure to allow for near- and long-term changes,” said Constantine Vaitsas, Centrica Energy Head of Business Solutions & Atlas Transformation Director. “Our partnership with PCI has shown that we can collaborate to meet an aggressive implementation schedule. This implementation spanned four areas within the power business unit and together we delivered the solution on time and within budget. Now that the foundation of the PCI system is in live operation, we are looking to PCI to further expand the capabilities to meet future strategic initiatives that such an enabling technology platform can provide.”
