Memoirs of an energy trading events organiser… 2009-2024
To mark the partnership between Energy Trading Week Europe and Energy Traders Europe’s 25th birthday celebrations, I was rather honoured to be invited to contribute an article, and swiftly accepted.
Thoughts then turned to… what exactly
should I write about? While having a good overview of many of the issues
affecting the energy trading world, there are many thousands of others who can
comment more intelligently on the specifics around market design,
digitalisation, nodal pricing and other topical issues.
Finally, sitting here early one morning, with a second cup of coffee in hand, I thought it might be interesting to cover what will hopefully be an interesting and quite unique perspective – that of the event organiser – a very high level overview of how we’ve seen the energy trading sector and community change and evolve over the last 15 years… peppered with an anecdote or two… with a few nods to various friends and industry stalwarts who have helped make the journey so interesting and enjoyable. Incidentally, this article also highlights Energy Traders Europe’s comprehensive and critical role in the advancement of the markets in the past decade and a half we’ve been working together.
2009… year 1… “Energy Back Office 2009
Summit”
Research was well underway. The easy
(easier) desktop research element was completed and now the phone based
research begins. First call not a success. Hung up on by the head of back
office at a major trading company. Ouch. Second call not a success either –
rather similar to the first but with something along the lines of “This is the
5th call I’ve had today from you conference people… take me off your
list!” before the phone angrily disconnected. Sob. Next few calls – more
productive… the very pleasant face of the energy trading community I would
quickly come to love. One common message from all I researched with however –
“You need to speak with EFET”. One person specifically at EFET in fact – Hugh
Brunswick, at the time leading the Business Process Optimisation Committee and
various technology initiatives.
My heart was in my throat as I made the
call… an angry hang-up here and the Energy Back Office 2009 Summit, and my
dreams, would go up in smoke. Thankfully – the response was quite the opposite
– a long, productive and deeply pleasant conversation leading to a now 15 years
ongoing partnership with EFET (Now of course – Energy Traders Europe), an
ongoing friendship with Hugh, and an opening of the gates into the world of
energy trading operations and technology, swiftly followed by regulations,
market design, risk, business and many other fascinating parts of the sector.
Energy Back Office 2009 Summit – at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, September 2009 was a great success – with key themes very much around automation (top rated presentation of the event from Filip Sleeuwagen, then head of commodity operations at Electrabel, and member of the EFET BPO committee, giving a sterling session around the at the time slightly abstract possibilities of electronic settlement matching!)
2010 – 2014 – Regulations, regulations, regulations!
2007-2009 saw us in the darkest days of the
great recession… in its immediate aftermath regulators around the world took
action to rightly try to prevent such an occurrence ever again via the
reduction in systemic risk, and to more generally improve transparency and
prevent market abuse. As such our attention was diverted from the acronyms of
eCM, ePM, eSM to the realm of REMIT, EMIR, MiFID, MAR. Once again – this was an
area EFET was highly, and proactively involved in – with efforts at the time
led by the brilliant Jan Haizmann and the EFET legal committee.
These years saw major advancements in
making the markets safer and more reliable places in which to operate. However,
with so much of the oxygen sucked out of the room to focus on these issues, it
did feel that wider automation and digital advancements took somewhat of a
backseat. This was all to change before long…
2015 onwards – the digital revolution!
With the regulatory environment suitably
strengthened, focus once again turned to the new and deeply exciting tsunami
engulfing the industry – the digital revolution!
Very much the event organisers dream –
loads of great content, and lots of new sponsors and exhibitors to showcase
their latest products. Happiest of days.
Very broadly, I’d break down these developments
into 5 categories, noted below:
Industry level – Especially in the post trade space as confirmation, settlement and position matching continued to gain ground, spearheaded at EFET level by Gavin Ferguson (incidentally - an absolute joy to work with!) Additionally, there were industry consortia initiatives in the blockchain arena most notably Enerchain.
Technology vendor innovation – There have been an almost infinite number of advancements from our exceptional vendor community. Of all these advancements however, I’d place the move to the cloud – today almost a given, 10 years ago still very much a debate – as that genesis event which has allowed innovation to accelerate dramatically since.
Internal digital roadmaps – Often driven through a combination of internal efforts and collaboration with specialist advisory firms, we’ve seen major improvements in technology architectures, software customisation, going paperless and much more.
Data – The sheer volume of, and diversity of data which has developed in the past 15 years has been nothing short of awe inspiring. Teleport the trader of 2009 to 2024 and they’d likely be rather troubled and lost. Today this encompasses everything from individual renewable asset performance, to satellites, real time geopolitical intelligence, far broader ranges of internal data, and so much more. In order for this to be usable we’ve seen great advancements in the world of data management, visualisation, and what can only be described as a mushrooming of companies with incredibly compelling solutions in the data analytics space.
AI – How can I have typed nearly 1000 words without mentioning AI! An abstract concept for much of the last 15 years, we have however seen this area explode particularly from the start of the 2020’s onwards, with no signs of really slowing down. I look back to the growth of and excitement around RPA (Robotic Process Automation) 2018-2019 as the opening act for AI. In 2020 there was a lively debate; is this another example of technology chasing a business case? From 2021 onwards it became very clear that this technology was here to stay and has since brought major benefits to the trading community… and “we ain’t seen nothing yet”…
2019 onwards – Decarbonisation: from
ticking a box to being a business driver
Lip service was paid for many years, but
until surprisingly recently decarbonisation and sustainability was given far
less attention than what we see today. The changing of names from DONG (Danish
Oil & Natural Gas) to Ørsted in 2017, followed by Statoil to Equinor in
2018, suggested that times were changing and in the years that have followed
we’ve seen it develop into arguably the industries key driving megatrend.
While environmental markets and especially
the European Emissions Trading Scheme (and since 2021, the UK ETS) are nothing
new, we have continued to see the steady advancement of that sector with a few
ups and downs along the way. More recently however we’ve seen the development
of a rather interesting virtuous circle, consisting of rapid expansion of
renewable assets, major advancements in storage technologies, and a dramatic
increase in demand for renewable based PPAs significantly changing the world of
energy markets – creating a wealth of opportunities, especially to those who
can swiftly and efficiently interpret the enormous pools of new data sources.
2020-2021 - Pestilence and the online era
As much as we’ve enjoyed these last 15
years, as many would expect, the covid era was an uncomfortable one for us poor
event organisers (as of course for much of the rest of the world). It was far
from a complete loss however, as it gave a real opportunity to engage and share
learnings from other global energy markets, especially North America. For
non-power commodities it also importantly gave a louder voice and more visible
presence to many more source countries for whom travel to London might not always
be so easy. Nearly 5 years on our online
events are still going strong. I must admit however, an online drinks reception
can’t quite live up to the real thing…
Today (Sept 25th) – Energy
Trading Week Europe 2024
Taking place today! With 1500 attendees and
165 speakers (including happily 7 from Energy Traders Europe). Next year we
expect to double this. It’s been quite the journey since 2009. Call me biased
but I truly cannot think of a more exciting industry, with more interesting,
pleasant people than the energy trading community. Here’s to many more years
ahead and thank you to everyone who has been a part of our journey!