To minimise the impact of fluctuations in electricity prices on business customers’ procurement processes, Slovenia’s electricity supplier GEN-I, in cooperation with GEN energija, has announced the development of fixed-price long-term forward transactions that will further help to keep electricity costs down. Furthermore, through solar energy communities, customers will be able to enjoy lower and more predictable electricity costs at times of increased price fluctuation, supporting the green transition at the same time.
The aim of this innovative service, GEN-I Solar Energy Communities, is to put in place self-sufficient communities of electricity producers and business customers, providing an answer to one of the key questions being put by businesses and industry: how can we set up our own electricity-producing capabilities so as to reduce costs, become less dependent on energy price fluctuations and thereby increase our competitive advantage?
Most enterprises today already have their own solar power units or are considering installing them. At peak sunlight times, these units produce energy surpluses that can then be sold on the market at low prices that depend on the general surpluses of energy production at any moment. By building a solar energy community, GEN-I is providing enterprises with a self-sufficient community that includes all the metering measuring points required by each company within the community. At times of peak production within the community, there is almost no transmission to the electricity grid because the surpluses are distributed to other electricity take-off metering points.
Thus, solar energy communities can reduce a company’s dependence on events on the market, minimise peaks and troughs and reduce overall electricity costs. Equally importantly, the solution helps companies reduce the adverse environmental impact of their business operations, thereby improving their ESG indicators.
The CEO of the GEN-I Group, Dr Dejan Paravan, also announced details of a major new service to Slovenian business and industry representatives. This service, the long-term fixed-price purchase of nuclear energy from Krško, is a response to the experience of the recent energy crisis. Long-term products are becoming increasingly important in the energy sector and are based on long-term contracts between electricity producers and final customers at a pre-agreed price. These products offer greater price predictability to the customer, as well as more stable income to the producer at times of extremely volatile electricity prices.
With the aim of designing innovative long-term products at a fixed electricity price, GEN-I will offer a portion of the nuclear energy produced at the Krško plant. This is stable base-load energy with almost no carbon footprint. The long-term fixed-price purchase of nuclear energy is the basic building block upon which GEN-I can then, with a well-planned market infrastructure, enable the design of more advanced structured comprehensive energy supply products for customers.
Moreover, to mitigate the increasing fluctuations of hourly prices throughout the day, GEN-I has introduced battery electricity storage into its portfolio of services for business customers. Through active management, stored energy can be used in a smart way at peak price times. In addition, in combination with a solar energy unit, these battery storage systems provide greater self-sufficiency and enable energy surpluses to be stored cheaply, thereby reducing consumption at more expensive times. Other advantages, in addition to optimisation of energy consumption, including the option of being incorporated into the portfolio for trading on organised electricity markets.