Documentation & optimization of business processes in an energy management front & back office team

Abstract

This project has been carried out in the Front office department of the Spanish Business Unit of the Energy Management section of an International Company. The Front office of a Company is the main activity of the business, where revenues are created, and the more risky activities are developed. The definition of the process roles and responsibilities and the risk identification and evaluation, are the main drivers of the Process development in a company, as it allows to locate the most sensible activities associated to the process. It is also a key driver of a department structure as it explains the distribution of tasks among the department members, and helps to allocate the different activities in an efficient way. The project seek two main objectives: the first one is the documentation of the Front-office processes in order to provide a solid base with defined tasks as backup documents supporting the internal Control Mechanisms of the company, because of the need to have a clear view of where the risks are located in the processes. This documentation procedure was completed with the help of the owners and responsible for the processes, defining each of the steps to be developed in order to perform the complete process, and the location of the different risk associated to the operating activities. The main activities studied are: The Gas Supply Dept., Short term Power Optimization, Market operations, scheduling & dispatch, and the Gas settlement & Invoicing. This part of the project has been the most time spending, as the processes must be deeply studied in order to develop a clear and defined document which explains fully the process. It is also the most important part regarding the company, as it provides support to the management and control, in order to have a more clear view over the processes carried out in the department in a transparent manner. The second objective was, once the documentation part has been finished, to look for possible enhancements, optimization or reduction of the steps in each of the studied and documented processes. The intended optimization is mainly focused in the reduction of the process steps and simplifying the whole process and the interactions between departments, so the main cost reductions will be measured in terms of time savings of the process, which is translated into operating costs. Other savings or earnings derived from the optimization are also obtained.