Green Power Portfolio Optimization: Capabilities for Wholesale Suppliers

Navigating the Green Power Transition

The global energy landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, with green power and renewables at the forefront. As the share of renewables in the generation mix accelerates—driven by regulatory mandates, technological innovation, and shifting consumer expectations—wholesale suppliers face a new era of complexity and opportunity. The rise of distributed assets, the proliferation of renewable energy certificates, and the increasing sophistication of contract structures are fundamentally reshaping how portfolios are managed, optimized, and monetized.

The Evolving Green Power Ecosystem

The modern green power ecosystem is characterized by a diverse mix of dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources, advanced storage solutions, and a growing number of prosumers contributing to the grid. Wholesale suppliers now operate at the intersection of generators, grid operators, markets, and consumers, balancing physical power flows, trading in dynamic markets, and managing exposure to volume and price risks inherent in renewable generation.

Key developments include:

Shift in Generation Mix: Renewables, especially wind and solar, are rapidly displacing traditional baseload sources. This introduces variability and uncertainty, requiring more sophisticated forecasting and real-time optimization.
Distributed and Storage Assets: The integration of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and distributed generation adds flexibility but also increases operational complexity.
Certificate and Contract Management: The management of Guarantees of Origin (GoOs), renewable energy certificates, and complex power purchase agreements (PPAs) is now central to portfolio value and compliance.

Challenges for Wholesale Suppliers

Managing a green power portfolio involves three core objectives:

Optimization: Balancing supply and demand in real time, accounting for the intermittency of renewables and the constraints of the grid.
Monetization: Maximizing the commercial value of green assets through market trading, hedging, and the strategic use of certificates and contracts.
Compliance: Meeting evolving regulatory requirements for green power supply, trading, and reporting across multiple jurisdictions.

The rapid growth of renewables introduces several challenges:

Forecasting Complexity: Accurate forecasting of both renewable generation and customer demand is critical. This requires integrating asset performance data, weather models, and grid signals.
Operational Integration: Real-time data acquisition and digitalization of both IT and OT systems are essential for steering distributed assets and responding to market signals.
Contract and Certificate Lifecycle Management: Modeling and automating the lifecycle of complex contracts and certificates is necessary to support scale and reduce manual intervention.
Regulatory and Market Adaptation: Keeping pace with new market designs, subsidy mechanisms, and compliance obligations demands agile, future-ready systems.

Required Capabilities for Green Power Portfolio Optimization

To thrive in this environment, wholesale suppliers must develop a robust set of business and technical capabilities:

Business Capabilities

Origination, Trading & Optimization: Advanced analytics for pre-trade analysis, asset monitoring, and portfolio optimization.
Contract Management: Automated lifecycle management for PPAs, CPPAs, and bespoke agreements, including integration of subsidy and curtailment clauses.
Physical Operations: Real-time scheduling, nomination, and asset steering, supported by secure digitalization of remote sites.
Market and Credit Risk: Exposure management, counterparty scoring, and stress scenario modeling.
Settlements and Accounting: Automated settlement, accruals management, and inventory reconciliation for both power and certificates.
Regulatory Compliance: End-to-end compliance monitoring and regulatory reporting, including renewable certificate tracking and auditability.

Technical Capabilities

Unified Data and Analytics Platform: Centralized integration of asset, market, weather, and certificate data to enable real-time insights and decision support.
AI-Driven Forecasting and Optimization: Machine learning models for generation and demand forecasting, curtailment prediction, and battery optimization.
Automated Certificate Management: Centralized systems for tracking, transferring, and monetizing renewable certificates across markets.
Modular, Cloud-Native Architecture: Scalable, secure infrastructure that supports rapid onboarding of new assets, contracts, and market interfaces.
Process Automation and Low-Code Tools: Streamlined workflows for deal capture, contract management, and regulatory reporting, reducing manual effort and risk.

Case Study: Integrating Commercial Optimization for a Global Renewables Portfolio

A leading multinational energy company, with one of the world’s largest offshore wind portfolios, faced the challenge of integrating newly acquired wind and solar assets managed by disparate regional teams. The goal: build a scalable business platform capable of supporting a doubling of the portfolio and accelerating green growth.

Publicis Sapient’s Approach:

Developed a Target Operating Model (TOM) to standardize systems and processes while accommodating renewables-specific requirements.
Designed a reference architecture leveraging existing platforms, with a focus on data integration, automation, and scalability.
Implemented a phased roadmap for migration and integration, prioritizing regions and business functions based on strategic impact.
Centralized certificate management and automated settlement processes, enabling operational efficiency and auditability.

Business Impact:

Streamlined and standardized business processes across front, middle, and back offices.
Centralized management of certificates and contracts, supporting both compliance and monetization.
Enhanced forecasting and optimization capabilities, resulting in increased trading P&L and reduced operational risk.
Established a scalable, future-ready platform to support continued portfolio growth and regulatory adaptation.

Reference Architecture for Green Power Growth

A future-ready green power platform is built on:

Forecast Providers and Asset Integration: Real-time data from SCADA systems, IoT devices, and market interfaces.
Unified Data Fabric: Consolidation of forecast, actuals, and grid data, supporting advanced analytics and AI agents.
Trading and Risk Backbone: Integration with ETRM platforms (e.g., Endur) for trade lifecycle, risk, and settlement management.
Interactive Dashboards and Automation: PowerBI, real-time dashboards, and AI-driven co-pilots for decision support and process automation.
Cloud-Native Infrastructure: Leveraging Azure services for event processing, monitoring, and secure data management.

Partnering for Success: Publicis Sapient’s Role

Publicis Sapient partners with wholesale suppliers to:

Define and implement business strategy and operating models tailored to green power growth.
Assess and build capabilities for forecasting, optimization, and compliance.
Design and deliver scalable, cloud-native platforms that integrate data, automate processes, and enable AI-driven insights.
Accelerate time-to-market for new products, contracts, and regulatory requirements through agile, modular solutions.

With deep industry expertise and a proven track record in digital business transformation, Publicis Sapient empowers clients to unlock the full value of their green power portfolios—enabling optimization, monetization, and compliance at scale.

Ready to modernize your green power portfolio? Connect with Publicis Sapient to build a future-ready platform for sustainable growth.