Utilities

Large independent power producer

Challenge. A major North American business unit of an independent power producer operating on four continents sought to improve its ability to manage transactions, schedule product movement, manage positions, and generate accounting transactions and reports.

Result. Allegro's solution integrated the producers power, natural gas, and risk management operations, giving company decision makers holistic views of business activity across the enterprise. It also records all associated storage contracts and broker and transfer fees.

The producer now manages physical and financial transactions in a single integrated environment. Allegro enables the company to perform accurate accounting transactions and generate timely reports on profit margins, valuations, and positions, and more effectively supporting power operations in the NE Pool and ERCOT.

Allegro's integrated solution also helps protect the company's profitability through more effective risk management, enabling more accurate and timely mark-to-market and Value at Risk calculations for NYMEX gas and OTC forwards.

Major U.S. natural gas utility

Challenge. The distribution unit of a major natural gas utility operating in several states faced a multitude of trading complications. Each trade presented a unique duration of time, price, fee structure and complex counterparty arrangements. The company needed accurate, timely mark-to-market and Value at Risk measurements, and a cost-effective way to view the daily net impact of spot trades.

Result. An Allegro solution enables the company to better manage futures, options and swaps, plus all physical trades. For the first time, decision makers can readily view profit and loss by customer. All trades for the customer, both physical and financial, are then placed into user-defined strategies, allowing risk managers to easily view their hedging activity.

The company reports numerous benefits including greater first-time reporting accuracy, significant efficiency gains, and more effective asset management to benefit customers.

European national gas utility

Challenge. A national gas utility found the need to adapt to a newly deregulated market, competing against independent merchant energy companies. This utility needed to maintain strict risk controls that were tightly integrated with physical management of natural gas, and manage risk associated with importing gas from a neighboring country. An existing system of spreadsheets for trades, prices, and volumes was no longer effective. Thus the utility required an integrated system for physical and financial energy management to optimize market activities — for example enabling the organization’s trading and risk professionals to fully understand their market positions in real time.

Result. An integrated Allegro solution enabled the national gas utility to efficiently measure and manage risk and the performance of the organization’s multi-commodity trading portfolio. Also, the solution performs all contract management, logistical control, nominations and notifications, ensuring data integrity throughout the company’s operations.