Centrica Energy

CentricaThe upstream gas and power division of Centrica plc, contracted to supply gas to, and purchase electricity from, a new power station. The tolling agreement (commercial contract) with the Generating company runs for a period of 17 years and necessitated a new trading system be built for making nominations (placing orders) and calculating the numerous billing formulae for electricity supply from that power station.

Challenge

  • The tolling agreement was exceptionally complex, requiring a wholly tailored IT solution to interpret the combination of commercial and technical algorithms
  • A design and build contract had been awarded to a small specialist energy systems house with no experience of building such a large application
  • Both the Toller and the Generator were parties to specifying, procuring and implementing the system essentially parties with opposing commercial positions tempered by a common "management" interest in getting the solution delivered.
  • The solution had to be live within months for the start of the energy supply contract, to capture nominations from day one to avoid contractual defaults.

Project Scope

  • Worked with front and back-office business users to ensure support of a complete end-to-end process, including changes to existing systems.
  • Co-ordinated closely with the Generating partner, proactively addressing risks and issues to avoid them becoming significant points of contention.
  • Defined programme and steered the supplier's delivery focus and priorities.
  • Regularly reviewed the development progress, jointly with the Generator’s project management team and key business users.
  • Managed development of business processes - new and enhanced - for energy trading under this contract.
  • Coordinated and directed the planning and delivery of all internal IT infrastructure design and implementation tasks.
  • Defined and implemented full support and maintenance arrangements plus a disaster recovery solution for this 24x7 system.

Business Benefits

  • Delivered the live system on time to meet the business target date when trading commenced, as the power station came on stream and within budget, justifying the business case.
  • Mitigated late delivery by the application supplier with a post implementation plan, agreed with the generator.
  • Internally, won business support for a successful delivery by the IS team.
  • Externally, forged and reinforced a good working relationship with senior staff in the Generator, both in operations and in IT functions.