Dynamic energy contracts – the future of energy pricing

In today’s competitive energy market, striking a favorable balance between advancing environmental goals on the road to Net Zero while retaining and satisfying your customers has become more important than ever. Energy companies are responding to this by diversifying their offerings and introducing innovative solutions tailored to the individual requirements and situations of their customers, empowering them to adapt their consumption patterns as well.

One such innovation that is gaining traction in the market is the concept of dynamic energy contracts.

The benefits of dynamic energy contracts

Implementing dynamic energy contracts offers substantial benefits for both your utility and your customers:

  • Encouraging smart consumption
    Dynamic pricing motivates your customers to use energy during periods of high production, when prices are lower. This is especially beneficial in the context of electricity.

  • Promoting sustainability
    By optimizing their energy usage in response to dynamic pricing, your customers indirectly support the overall sustainability of energy consumption, reducing the burden on valuable resources.
  • Grid balancing
    Dynamic contracts contribute to the essential task of balancing supply and demand on the energy grid, a challenge that will only increase with the growing electrification trend. Achieving a better balance on the grid is essential for accommodating the integration of more solar and wind energy sources.

What is a dynamic energy contract?

A dynamic energy contract is a forward-thinking approach to pricing energy services. With a dynamic energy contract, the electricity price is calculated on an hourly basis, while gas prices are adjusted daily. This means that your customers pay varying rates every hour or day, depending on their energy usage. Customers will receive price forecasts one day in advance and can also opt in for real-time notifications (via email or text message). This enables them to adjust their usage according to the price curve.

Four key tips when introducing dynamic contracts

If your utility is considering the introduction of dynamic energy contracts, here are some crucial strategies to keep in mind:

1

Empower customer engagement

Provide your customers with the ability to monitor daily energy prices using a user-friendly customer portal, including real-time updates on price fluctuations and instant alerts. This empowers them to make informed choices regarding energy usage.

2

Integrate seamlessly

Establish a direct link between your Customer Information System and energy broker portals to ensure accurate and timely pricing information for your customers.

3

Educate on risks

Your customers should understand that this pricing model requires active engagement and a willingness to align their energy consumption with fluctuating hourly (for electricity) and daily (for gas) rates. By doing so, they will not only reap the benefits of this model but also make a valuable contribution to sustainability.

4

Bill accurately

Simplify your billing process by providing automated monthly statements based on actual consumptions, replacing the traditional final bill and monthly prepayments based on estimated annual consumption. This will help your customers better manage their energy expenses and it enhances transparency.

How to implement dynamic energy contracts effectively

To implement dynamic energy contracts effectively, consider adopting a modern Customer Information Solution like UMAX.

UMAX is a flexible CRM & CIS solution, specifically designed for utilities. With its open architecture, you can easily integrate data and functionality in other applications, including Broker Portals and Mobile Apps. All data in UMAX is available for external consumption, and is also natively integrated with Opinum’s market-leading Data Hub. This is a cloud-based data analytics and visualization platform for utilities, enabling advanced analytics and AI-driven insights.

With UMAX you can send text messages to notify your customers when prices become negative, enabling them to adjust their consumption behaviors, such as charging electric vehicles, deactivating solar sources, or initiating battery charging.

Dynamic energy contracts in UMAX

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Itineris & UMAX

Itineris develops and implements UMAX, a set of cloud-based solutions for utilities.

UMAX supports accurate conversion of meter readings to bills, with extensive customer and field service support capabilities.

The UMAX solutions are built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform.

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