South Tyrol-based Alperia is using CerQlar to future-proof its Guarantee of Origin (GO) business. What prompted Philipp Volgger, Head of Power Portfolio Management at Alperia and his team to adopt CerQlar? Why does a solution designed for GOs make even more sense now than ever before?
Key reasons behind Alperia’s decision to adopt CerQlar
In a farsighted move, Philipp Volgger became an early adopter of CerQlar. Let’s take a look at what factors influenced his decision:
- Strong growth in certificates business
Alperia operates 41 hydroelectricity plants in South Tyrol. The demand for its renewable energy continued to grow strongly and Alperia expanded its certificates business in parallel.
- Processing increasingly complex certificates increased risk
As the variety of energy attribute certificates (EACs) grew, and as attributes became more specific and customized, there was much more information to keep track of. Manually managing more complex data was no longer scalable.
- Rising GO prices increased the need for even more oversight
The significant rise in GO prices over the last several years has ensured that corporate risk managers are now paying close attention to GO portfolios. It was important to Volgger to find a solution that would enable him to provide his key stakeholders with real-time information.
Initially, Alperia’s objective was to use CerQlar to automate manual processes and reduce the risk of manual errors. Quickly, Volgger realized that automated settlement processes were merely a first step. He said, “When we started, our main goal was to optimize our GO workflows. In fact, we were intellectually challenged to redesign our ways of working to improve how we did business.” As Alperia’s portfolio grew in size and value, an integrated inventory and portfolio management solution became “must-haves” for the business.
Compelling business benefits with CerQlar
Volgger and his team looked long and hard to find a GO post-trade settlement solution that could handle the complexity of GOs. He said, “We saw many ETRM and other systems that treated GOs as an add-on, and the functionality they offered was limited because they treated energy certificates as non-essential.”
When Volgger met the CerQlar team early on, he saw the potential value. He stated, “We saw the potential of CerQlar earlier than most, and as a result, we are now even more prepared to leverage new opportunities in the evolving GO market.”
We saw the potential of CerQlar earlier than most, and as a result, we are now even more prepared to leverage new opportunities in the evolving GO market.
Philipp Volgger, Head of Power Portfolio Management
Transitioning manual processes to automated workflows is now enabling significant business benefits, including these:
- Greater transparency
New portfolio management and inventory management features enable increased transparency and audit trails. The ability to get a complete position overview or drill down into specifics make it much easier for portfolio managers to stay in control.
- More insights
Reliable, centralized data enables GO portfolio managers to use their data for insights. When all files are transformed/converted to use the same naming conventions, same variables, and the same fields, leveraging information becomes much easier. For example, Hydro appears everywhere instead of Hydro, Wasserkraft or idroelettrico. Even when you export your data it stays normalized.
- Reduced operational risk
Task and workflow automation ensure greater certainty that tasks have been done and important deadlines are met.
Higher prices mean more is at stake
GO prices have risen significantly during the last two years and that means that more money is at stake. Corporate risk managers are paying close attention. Chief Risk Officers, CFOs and other stakeholders are pushing for more professional reporting solutions. Because CerQlar was custom-designed for GOs, it provides the flexibility and detail needed to provide stakeholders with comprehensive data on complex GO portfolios.
CerQlar enables you to consolidate information for multiple departments, communicate it back to stakeholders, quickly identify problems when they arise, and make tactical moves. Request a meeting to learn how.
Alperia support for innovation is key
Since it was founded, Alperia has always been an active supporter of green energy technology and has a long history of sponsoring renewable energy innovation. The company’s strong commitment to tech innovation enabled Volgger to get executive support to partner with CerQlar from the early stages as an early adopter.
Volgger already sees a positive difference, “As a result of working with CerQlar we’ve redesigned our processes. We’ve further improved our data quality, we have even more comprehensive reporting in place, and we are making more data-based decisions.”
