2018: a challenging year for the energy market

0
The Pulse team at the Energy Awards 2017

The market is not getting any easier, writes Tony West, energy trading consultant, Pulse Business Energy, in this sponsored post.

For many years prior to the summer of 2016, wholesale energy prices fell and forward curves for annual prices were generally in contango. Consequently, it was reasonably easy to meet or beat energy purchase budgets year on year; making it straightforward to get purchasing approvals.

While it is true that fully made up retail prices may not have been dropping significantly, and were eventually increasing as time went on, this was primarily because of a general increase in taxes and levies required to promote and support renewable energy sources. This was largely perceived as out of anyone’s control and could not be influenced, although in reality this may not have been true for all buyers.

Throughout this time, many energy brokers, who were looking to aggressively increase customer numbers, also misinterpreted the contango forward-curves and often described them to consumers as forecasts, which appeared to support the argument to purchase earlier than necessary in order to close a deal. With prices moving down these purchases nevertheless looked good compared with previous years, even though in most cases delaying purchasing decisions would have been more beneficial – many of Pulse’s customers did take advantage of such contract flexibility and so achieved even better prices than the fixed prices being peddled by others.

At the same time, Ofgem were encouraging new entrant suppliers, which, together with the active TPI sector, helped to create increased competitivity, further pushing prices down.

As mid-2016 approached the market bottomed, coinciding with a structural shift as the forward curve for annual prices flipped to backwardation, enabling consumers to cover forward years at lower prices – consumers also began to better understand the market structure and learnt that backwardation was actually a sign of an underlying stronger (bullish) market sentiment and so buying forward sooner rather than later was likely to be a good strategy.

As time progressed markets became more difficult; prices rose and volatility increased. Whereas backwardation meant consumers could still buy forward years cheaper, overall price levels were higher and so beating budgets, aimed at achieving previous year’s levels, became ever more difficult.

As we move through 2018, all these challenges have increased. These difficult market conditions are also affecting suppliers, as evidenced by recent announcements by Centrica and the consolidation of many of the newer entrants, some of which have experienced business threatening risk management and financial performance issues.

Several factors are at play, which will ensure the energy market in UK, and EU for that matter, will remain challenging in 2018 and maybe beyond:

Thermal generation capacity mix has changed over recent years and will continue to do so going forward. Historically during the winter, when demand for gas is high for heating, coal-fired power generation helped to lessen the demand on gas for power generation. However, over recent years, emission regulations, including SOx, NOX and CO2, have all resulted in the gradual closure of coal-fired power generation plants particularly in UK but also now impacting on countries like Germany, Spain and Poland, who have traditionally been large users of coal. This means in cold periods and at times when French Nuclear power generation or intermitted renewable power is curtailed, gas fired power generation is relied upon; often coinciding with high heating demand, resulting in high price volatility.

Following the recent closure of the Rough storage facility and the reduction in production capacity from the large Groningen gas field, the market is now increasingly reliant non conventional gas supply, i.e. Russian and Norwegian gas flows, and LNG deliveries, which are all very price sensitive.

The increasing proportion of wind and solar power generation capacity, which is primarily driven by subsidy rather than the wholesale market, has not only added to production volatility, but has also changed market drivers. Prices have become much more correlated to weather (temperature, wind and sun) and far less correlated to supply/demand – peak demand no longer necessarily coincides with peak price – the market is not broken but really does need updating to reflect the modern generation mix.

Oil prices have risen recently as the oil market supply/demand balanced and OPEC curtailed production levels, though whether this will be maintained as 2018 progresses is not obvious.

All these factors support the likelihood of greater volatility. However, as regulations come in to ‘fix the market’, suppliers consolidate and subsidy incentives for new generation change, the impact reduces.

Furthermore, the recent capacity auctions demonstrate National Grid is increasingly confident it has sufficient ‘reserve’ capacity to manage imbalances. While current conditions might suggest fixing forward energy prices could be the lower risk strategy, as spring turns to summer the possibility of contango returning becomes more likely and then flexible strategies with delayed purchasing will become the order of the day again, though today deciding which way to go is not obvious.

A word about Brexit. It might surprise some, though in isolation Brexit is unlikely to have a major impact on the UK energy market. If we assume the energy market is indeed just that, it will ultimately be driven by fundamental factors, primarily supply and demand; remembering it is essentially a global market anyway, with the largest energy suppliers to Europe being Russia and Norway (neither part of the current EU 28), with renewables increasingly significant too. Yes, there could be macro-economic impacts of Brexit, perhaps causing large-scale demand reduction and changes to FX rates, though many of the consequences will have opposing impacts on price. Furthermore, Europe is set up on a very integrated basis to allow multidirectional energy flows; technical issues may need to be finalised but it is in nobody’s interest to impose cross border tariffs. Even the European Parliament’s recent study ‘The Impact of Brexit on the EU Energy System’ recognises that the energy-system impact of Brexit will be limited.


Pulse wins Energy Buying Team of the Year accolade

Pulse Business Energy has been named winner in the Energy  Buying Team of the Year category in the Energy Awards 2017, the benchmark for quality in the Energy business, celebrating innovation and best practice across the industry.

The Energy Buying Team of the Year Award has been introduced to emphasise the importance of teamwork in the procurement of energy and recognises a company’s ability to devise and implement a purchasing strategy that manages energy prices in a controllable manner while achieving below budget costs for gas and electricity procurement.

It is fast becoming one of the most hotly contested categories in the awards. The field is so strong it is no longer enough simply for teams to demonstrate successful performance – judges now look for additional factors to separate out the winners from the chasing pack.

This year’s award has been won in partnership with the Nottingham Express Transit (NET), which consists of a 32km-long tram network servicing the city of Nottingham.

Prior to involving Pulse Business Energy, NET fixed the price of electricity for three years at a time. Pulse devised a three-year procurement strategy that could be modified to reflect changes in the market and NET’s requirements. The strategy was so successful that it saved NET £1,198,340 between 2015-2018 against the price available to fix in November 2013.

The lower tram costs made NET more attractive to commuters and increased tram usage provided several environmental benefits like improving the city air quality and reducing congestion and traffic in the city centre. “True teamwork and impressive results,” judges noted.

This award is a substantial milestone in Pulse’s business strategy following the acquisition in early 2017 by the Arrow Group.

Ben Dhesi, managing director of Pulse, comments: “We are especially pleased to accept this award as an acknowledgment of our commitment to the Pulse customers and our desire to offer market-leading energy and water solutions.”

Pulse Business Energy previously won the Energy Buying Team of the Year in 2015 and the Innovation of the Year Award in 2016 for its Pulse Online Database business platform (POD).

If you are looking for energy and water advice, contact Pulse Business Energy on: Tel: 0333 700 0250, info@pulsebusinessenergy.co.uk

This article was part of Pulse’s front cover advertising package in the February-March print issue of The Energyst.

Click here to see if you qualify for a free subscription to the print edition of The Energyst, or to renew.

Follow us at @EnergystMedia. For regular bulletins, sign up for the free newsletter.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here