Advanced Procurement
Are you a large energy user with increasing energy bills?
Energy Link's Advanced Procurement Service (APS) gives large energy consumers the market intelligence, independent advice, and procurement strategies they need to confidently secure pricing and reduce costs.
Advanced Procurement Service for Large Energy Users
What is Advanced Procurement?
Advanced Procurement is a strategic approach to buying and selling energy, tailored to your organisation’s specific needs. Our real-time market intelligence, proven forecasting tools and risk management strategies ensure your energy deals are structured and timed to align with your cost, flexibility and sustainability priorities.
Navigating New Zealand's volatile energy markets without expert support can cost your business - through poorly timed contracts, missed opportunities, and avoidable risk exposure.
Our approach to energy procurement combines wholesale market analysis, risk profiling, and expert advice to maintain an executable procurement plan aligned with, and responsive to your energy needs and budget.
Who Can Benefit from Advanced Procurement?
APS could be right for you if any of the following describes your business:
- consumption > 10 GWhpa
- 30+ sites in multiple locations
- relies on Fixed Price Variable Volume supply contracts
- has, or is interested in
- onsite electricity generation and battery storage
- a power purchase agreement
- a portfolio of electricity hedge contracts to manage spot exposure
- owns assets capable of providing short- or long-term demand response
Whether you need help understanding electricity pricing, planning for managing energy risk or simply approaching your next contract renewal and want to explore better alternatives, APS will add value at every step.
Are you Struggling with Rising Energy Prices?
You are not the only one! After market deregulation in 1996, electricity prices in New Zealand have displayed high volatility which has intensified since the current gas shortage began in 2018. NZ’s reliance on hydro generation, means supply is already heavily weather dependent; a reliance set to increase as wind and solar contribute a greater proportion of our power.
Consumers across the country are facing increasing prices and shrinking certainty over what they’ll be paying on the next contract. Without a clear strategy, procurement decisions are guesswork.
Energy Link has over 30 years of market experience and can help you:
- Understand market trends before they impact pricing
- Time procurement decision more effectively
- Reduce exposure to price spikes and volatility
- Engage in multi-party, and multiple partnership supply arrangements
- Integrate procurement with operations
- Move from reactive purchasing to proactive price securing
How Energy Link's Advanced Procurement Services Work
At core, APS is a partnership based on two premises. Firstly, supply arrangements are becoming more complex, multi-layered and increasingly interactive with internal operations and external market activity. Secondly, energy needs and priorities vary across organisations; the more we understand how you do business today, and will do in the future, the better we can tailor our services to your needs.
Under APS we work within your energy strategy (or help you develop one), creating a procurement plan sensitive to your operational constraints, risk appetite and future energy and sustainability goals. The plan is a flexible schedule of three deliverables:
Regular (monthly or quarterly) market intelligence reports in a format designed to address the key aspects of your specific energy strategy, including:
- recent price movements in wholesale and relevant secondary markets
- forecasts of expected market movements
- summaries of important compliance and regulatory issues
Routine (monthly or quarterly) performance reviews of energy and risk management arrangements highlighting:
- reconciliation of contracted cash flows
- deviation from budget and budget reforecasts (based on changing market outlook)
- unexpected risks and missed opportunities
- procurement recommendations
- operational advice
Approved procurement activities: RFPs, EOIs, risk management trades, etc
The service can also include ad hoc elements such as advising on the procurement aspects of energy related projects, reviews of energy and procurement strategies and supporting participation on complex contractor and counterparty negotiations.
APS clients can also get access to Ellserve, Energy Link's utility management platform, which automates bill checking, tracks contracted rates, and flags discrepancies - so you always know that you're only paying for what you use, at the correct contracted rates.
Utility Management & Information System - Ellserve
Careful contract management is the insurance you need to ensure that you minimise energy and utility costs. Good information is the foundation upon which an Energy and Utility Management program is built.
Ellserve is Energy Link’s utility management and information system, which offers a combination of online software, along with service provided by our dedicated, expert team. You need to know that you are paying only for what you need to use, at the correct contracted rates. Ellserve ensures this happens.
Aside from peace of mind, this element of Ellserve will save you, over time, several percent relative to what you expected. Little issues crop up regularly, big issues less often, but when they do, they can have a big impact if not detected
How Ellserve helps you keep the lid on energy &utility costs and discover how to maximise the value of your energy and utility supply contracts.
Why Choose Energy Link?
- Independent advice - we have no retail affiliations, so our only interest is your best outcome
- 30+ years of New Zealand electricity market expertise
- Proven forecasting tools used by generators, retailers, and large consumers across NZ
- End-to-end procurement service from strategy through to ongoing contract management
Interested in finding out more?
Let's talk about how Advanced Procurement could work for your business.