Industry Deep Dive: Digital Innovation in Energy Supply, Trading & Risk Management for Green Power and Renewables

The New Imperative: Digital Transformation for Green Power Portfolios

The global energy sector is undergoing a seismic shift as the world accelerates toward decarbonization. For organizations managing green power portfolios—spanning renewables trading, battery optimization, certificate management, and distributed energy resources—this transition brings both unprecedented complexity and opportunity. The integration of intermittent renewables, evolving regulatory frameworks, and the rise of prosumers are fundamentally transforming how energy is supplied, traded, and risk-managed.

To thrive in this new landscape, energy suppliers, utilities, and wholesale traders must move beyond legacy Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) systems and manual processes. The path forward is clear: embrace a unified, digital ecosystem that leverages automation, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock next-generation capabilities for green power.

The Green Power Ecosystem: Complexity and Opportunity

The green power ecosystem is defined by a diverse mix of actors and technologies:

Generation Companies (wind, solar, hydro, batteries)
Grid Operators balancing frequency, voltage, and load
Wholesale Suppliers trading and hedging to balance physical power and manage risk
Wholesale Buyers (industrial, commercial, retail)
Electricity Markets facilitating power and certificate trading
Prosumers (consumers who also generate power, e.g., rooftop solar)

This ecosystem is shaped by:

The shift from dispatchable to non-dispatchable (weather-dependent) generation
The proliferation of distributed energy resources and micro-generation
The growing importance of renewable energy certificates (RECs, GoOs) and carbon credits
The need for real-time balancing, forecasting, and monetization of renewable assets

Key Challenges in Managing Green Power Portfolios

Organizations managing green power portfolios face a unique set of challenges:

Forecasting and Balancing: Accurate forecasting of both renewable generation and customer demand is critical, given the variability of wind and solar. Integrating asset performance, weather data, and grid signals is essential for day-ahead and intra-day balancing.
Monetization and Optimization: Maximizing the commercial value of green assets requires advanced optimization of physical flows, battery storage, and trading strategies. This includes managing congestion, curtailment, and arbitrage opportunities.
Certificate Management: The proliferation of RECs, guarantees of origin, and carbon credits demands robust, centralized systems to track, validate, and monetize these assets across jurisdictions.
Regulatory Compliance: Evolving market designs and compliance requirements—especially for renewables and emissions—necessitate automated, auditable reporting frameworks.
Operational Efficiency: Manual interventions in deal capture, scheduling, settlement, and reconciliation increase the risk of errors and limit scalability as renewables grow.

The Digital Ecosystem Advantage

Modernizing green power trading and risk management starts with breaking down data silos and creating a connected digital ecosystem. By integrating trading, risk, operations, and compliance data into a unified platform, organizations can:

Gain Agility: Respond to market changes and regulatory shifts in real time, enabling rapid decision-making and portfolio adjustments.
Enhance Collaboration: Foster seamless information sharing across front, middle, and back office, as well as with external partners and counterparties.
Achieve End-to-End Visibility: Monitor assets, contracts, exposures, and sustainability metrics across the entire value chain.
Drive Innovation: Leverage AI and advanced analytics for demand forecasting, price simulation, battery optimization, and scenario analysis.
Automate for Efficiency: Streamline trade lifecycle management, automate settlements and reporting, and free up teams for higher-value activities.

AI and Automation: Unlocking Next-Generation Capabilities

The integration of AI and automation into ETRM platforms is a game-changer for green power portfolios. Key use cases include:

Front Office: AI-driven demand and price forecasting, market simulation, schedule generation, and regulatory impact analysis
Middle Office: Automated credit scoring, contract review and generation, risk policy monitoring, and hedging recommendations
Back Office: Automated reconciliation, invoice matching, regulatory reporting, and management dashboards
Certificate Management: Centralized tracking and validation of RECs and carbon credits, supporting both compliance and monetization
Battery Optimization: Real-time models to maximize storage value, manage congestion, and support grid stability

Case Study: Integrating Commercial Optimization for a Large Renewables Portfolio

A global energy company, one of the world’s largest offshore wind power generators, set an ambitious goal to be climate-neutral by 2040, backed by a €55 billion investment in renewables. Following a major asset acquisition, the company faced the challenge of integrating commercial optimization activities for wind and solar assets managed by three separate regional groups.

The Solution:

Publicis Sapient developed a Target Operating Model (TOM) for the integrated entity, prioritizing standardization of systems and processes while accommodating renewables-specific requirements.
A scalable business platform was built, capable of supporting a doubling of the portfolio, with a detailed roadmap for phased integration across regions and business functions.
The architecture included robust data migration strategies, centralized certificate management, and advanced optimization models for congestion, day-ahead, and battery trading.

The Impact:

Streamlined and standardized business processes across front, middle, and back offices
Centralized certificate management for operational efficiency
Automated settlement and invoicing, reducing manual effort and errors
Significant increase in trading P&L through advanced optimization models
Foundation for global risk and revenue modeling

Capabilities Required for Success in the Green Power Ecosystem

To succeed in the rapidly evolving green power landscape, organizations must develop and integrate a range of capabilities:

Origination, Trading & Optimization: Pre-trade analysis, asset monitoring, portfolio structure, and intra-day trading
Contracts and Certificate Management: Master agreements, PPA management, certificate inventory and trading
Physical Operations: Scheduling, nomination, curtailment management, battery and RES optimization
Market and Credit Risk: Exposure management, value at risk, stress scenarios, counterparty limits
Settlements and Accounting: Automated settlement, accruals, inventory reconciliation, regulatory reporting
Regulatory Compliance: Automated compliance monitoring, auditable reporting, subsidy and carbon market integration
Data and Technology Foundation: Real-time data integration, cloud-based analytics, AI-driven decision support, and user-friendly dashboards

A Practical Roadmap for Digital Transformation

Publicis Sapient’s proven approach to digital transformation in green power trading and risk management includes:

Unify Data Across the Value Chain: Migrate from legacy, on-premise systems to cloud-based platforms that centralize trading, risk, and operational data.
Automate and Streamline Processes: Replace manual workflows with automated, user-friendly solutions that reduce errors and free up teams for value-added activities.
Empower Business Users: Provide self-serve analytics and real-time dashboards for decision support.
Align Teams Around Shared Outcomes: Break down silos by aligning incentives and KPIs across trading, risk, operations, and sustainability.
Iterate and Scale: Start with high-impact use cases, deliver minimum viable products quickly, and scale successful solutions across the organization.

Why Publicis Sapient?

With decades of experience in energy and utilities, Publicis Sapient is uniquely positioned to guide organizations through large-scale, cross-functional transformation. Our SPEED capabilities—Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, and Data & AI—ensure that every solution is tailored to your needs and delivers measurable business outcomes. In partnership with Microsoft, we bring together deep industry knowledge, digital transformation expertise, and leading cloud and AI technologies.

Ready to Lead the Next Wave of Green Power Transformation?

The future of energy supply, trading, and risk management is digital, data-driven, and agile. By embracing unified analytics, automation, and cloud-native platforms, organizations can not only navigate volatility but seize new opportunities for growth and sustainability. Connect with Publicis Sapient’s experts to discover how we can help you modernize your green power trading and risk operations—and thrive in the new energy era.

Contact us at energyandcommodities@publicissapient.com to start your transformation journey.

Publicis Sapient is a digital business transformation partner helping established organizations get to their future, digitally-enabled state. Learn more at publicissapient.com.