German Power Market to Shrink in 2009 !!

The power market in Germany, Europe’s biggest, probably will shrink in 2009, for the first time since Enron Corp. failed in 2001 as utilities reduce risks and fewer banks trade energy, raising concerns about exaggerated prices.

E.ON AG, the nation’s biggest utility, has one financial company among its top trading partners, down from four a year ago, after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September and UBS AG exited the commodities business in October. Stockholm-based Vattenfall AB, the Nordic region’s largest utility, cut its list to three banks from six.

German power trading may contract 17 percent this year from 2008’s record, forecasts Kai Seela, head of power and emissions at Vattenfall. The decline may reduce competition among traders, meaning energy users from ThyssenKrupp AG to Daimler AG may struggle to get the best offers and lowest power costs, even after wholesale prices fell 45 percent from July’s peak.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aAOIVnjDWqGA&refer=news

US companies spend $2.8B a year powering unused PC's

Just about to head off to bed and I saw this article (via slashdot).

http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2009/03/pc_power_manage_2.html

Only caught my eye as I have not turned my home PC off for some weeks now. Time to turn over a new energy and cost saving leaf...although it will have to wait until my downloads have finihsed and the temperature has increased outside ;-)

Joe

MIT Course in Energy Economics

For those who didn't know, MIT Open Course Ware (http://ocw.mit.edu) gives anyone in the world access to all of MIT's course materials. So if you feel like learning about Victorian morality plays for example, you know where to go now :)

They also have a bunch of courses on Energy. A friend of mine pointed me to a course on Energy Economics which can serve as a good primer.
Check out http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Economics/14-44Spring-2007/CourseHome/index.htm for the course.

Energy Risk’s Annual ETRM Survey

Energy Risk magazine has published it’s annual ETRM survey. These survey’s are never perfect but as long as you read between the lines it does help to represent industry views on the package landscape. As might be expected the top names that show up consistently on most of the lists are OpenLink, Murex, and Triple Point. Allegro takes more of a back seat than I would have expected and maybe not surprisingly – although I do find some mild humour in it – the list of “market leaders” and “level of satisfaction” has a very different pecking order. Below is the league tables for usage (an indicator of footprint not momentum):

Position Vendor Percent
Front Office

1

OpenLink

21%

2

SunGard (Kiodex, Zainet, Entegrate)

16%

3

Murex

14.6%

4

Triple Point Technology

10.7%

5

TradeCapture

8.5%

6

Allegro

4.0%

Middle Office

1

OpenLink

20.3%

2

Sungard

17.5%

3

Murex

13.3%

4

Triple Point Technology

12.5%

5

TradeCapture

8.3%

=6

Allegro

3.3%

=6

Temenos

3.3%

Back Office

1

OpenLink

22.1%

2

Sungard

19.5%

3

Triple Point Technology

11%

4

Murex

10%

5

TradeCapture

8.4%

6

SAP

6.7%

There are several other lists worth looking at in the article but just my $.02, …

My general feeling from the marketplace is that OpenLink, Triple Point, and Allegro have compelling momentum right now and will probably have another good year in 2009 into 2010. Sungard – in large part due to the persistence of Zai*Net – continues to hold its large footprint but may start to loose ground due to a general lack of momentum.

The interest in capturing the logistical aspects of physical oil continues to be a specialist area not well suited for the majority of ETRM providers. SolArc has a large lead here but the other more mainstream packages all recognize that this is a prize worth going after and are developing their capabilities in this space. Right now there isn’t much of a comparison but watch this space in 12-18 months to see who ends up dominating.

One final observation/annoyance … in the survey’s there tends to be a number apple-to-oranges comparisons. Murex – for instance – is a fantastic choice for cross asset-class work and consistently leads the league tables in this category but is far less geared for Energy than most of the other vendors in this survey. Likewise seeing SAP in the Back Office category is a bit off-putting. I mean, of course SAP is a very common solution for Accounting and Settlement but it makes it hard to make a worthwhile comparison when you look at a number of ETRM solutions and one ERP system.

Happy to have opposing views here. It is clearly an area that is less than black and white. Feel free to post your point of view but please keep the comments constructive. :^)

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