PPA-settlement

With software from the AKTIF Group, Sunnic Lighthouse GmbH has created a solid foundation for the relevant billing processes involved in direct marketing, particularly with regard to power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Challenge: Reflecting diversification in direct marketing

Sunnic Lighthouse GmbH was founded in 2012 as a subsidiary of ENERPARC AG with the aim of directly marketing and trading the electricity generated in ENERPARC's solar parks. Today, the company is responsible for around 3,500 megawatts of green electricity. The feeders now also include renewable energy plants beyond the ENERPARC Group's own portfolio, which additionally supplement the spectrum with electricity from wind power and biogas plants. Power purchase agreements have played an essential role in marketing for the company for two years, and a separate department was created for this purpose in 2021. With increasing diversification on both the feed-in and purchase sides within the framework of numerous, individually tailored PPA agreements, the processes underlying direct marketing came into focus at Sunnic 2022. At this point, it became relatively clear that the solution previously used for billing could no longer cope with the growing complexity. In view of the individuality of contracts and a significantly higher overall billing volume, the billing of feed-in in particular was no longer manageable.

Solution: Software from proven partner AKTIF

Since the AKTIF Group had already been reliably handling delivery-side billing, including back office services, for Sunnic as part of a full-service package since 2022, the AKTIF®dataService software quickly proved its worth for the new task as well. By effectively combining external and internal views of the point of delivery – whose market location (MaLo) ID is just the tip of the iceberg – the Sunnic team is now overcoming the biggest hurdle in the direct marketing business with flying colors. The billing-relevant breakdown of the plants behind a MaLo ID, which are usually owned by several companies with different shares, is fully possible – even if new plants are added to the existing MaLo ID over time, which fall under different remuneration models – in some cases with individually defined tranches. "With the AKTIF software, which went live for feed-in billing in January 2023, we can map the different configurations and perspectives under one interface. Thanks to the systemically stored references within the data records, we not only benefit from high data quality, but also gain a decisive advantage in terms of effectiveness in an increasingly fast-paced market environment," emphasizes Marcus Bockhorst, Team Lead Back Office and responsible for commercial coordination at Sunnic.

Result: Independence and full control in day-to-day business

Thanks to the new IT capabilities, Sunnic benefits not least from greater freedom with regard to reporting processes. Whereas previously an external service provider was commissioned to re-register feed-in systems, Sunnic now does this itself using AKTIF software. If a new internal plant or a new external feed-in partner is added, or if a change in the form of marketing is required for a plant—for example, in the case of a desired and monthly possible switch from EEG subsidies to other direct marketing—the associated communication process runs automatically via AKTIF®dataService, plus complete electronic documentation. "This has made us much faster. For example, if we need to re-register a hundred plants in three days because a deadline is expiring, we can manage this effectively ourselves and are no longer dependent on the service provider," says Bockhorst.

This is aided not only by the numerous automated functions in the system, but also by the integrated pinboard, which allows the process status of market processes and processing progress, as well as possible obstacles, to be tracked at any time.

Any necessary adjustments to the database along the market communication chain – regardless of where they originate – are applied across all systems by the AKTIF software for all affected constructs. This means that the external view is immediately reflected in the internal billing area wherever necessary, which includes a plant-specific listing based on the market master data register. Regardless of the external constellation or how it may change, Sunnic always has a clear picture – both of the quantities and their billing-relevant distribution to individual contractual partners – thanks to the precisely configured links within the system. This means that creating accurate bundle invoices for individual feed-in partners whose shares are distributed across several individual plants, which in turn are located behind different MaLo and where there are different forms of marketing, is no longer a problem – despite the enormous complexity. The path for further growth is open at any time.

A detailed examination of this practical example is provided in a technical article published in issue 5/2023 of the trade magazine 50.2.