Maximizing Efficiency in Energy Procurement for Catholic Charities

Scope: 27 locations (31 Electric meters; 27 Gas Meters)

Services: Electricity Procurement, Account/Market Monitoring

Date of Procurement: Round 1: Apr–Jun 2014 | Round 2: Mar-April 2016

Budget: $642,177

Following a review of each of individual location, Transparent Energy recommended a portfolio approach to procuring Catholic Charities energy, thereby leveraging the power load of all locations to achieve reduced rates.

Transparent Energy faced challenges with this approach:

• Each location’s supply contract had its own unique expiration date.
• Multiple unique usage patterns across facilities resulting in different levels of favorable pricing
• Internal billing procedures often surpassed industry average net payment terms

Transparent Energy developed a fixed-price strategy for Catholic Charities that leveraged the unique consumption patterns of each location. The patterns were accounted for by separating the facilities into groups based on similar consumption. This resulted in five separate groupings of accounts.

Once this strategy was set, an open price auction was held for each consumption group with the most reliable and viable suppliers in the region in order to yield the best price available. Transparent Energy identified the suppliers that could meet the terms and conditions necessary, negotiating on Catholic Charities’ behalf to ensure each contract comes due for renewal in the same month, despite the variety of start dates. This ensures timing simplicities when approaching the renewal of the contracts.

Transparent Energy engaged Catholic Charities in six (6) contracts spanning a 36-month term. Utilizing Transparent Energy’s industry-leading data and analytics software, future savings are projected to be over 15% of electricity supply costs.