EnAppSys provides a market-leading energy data platform and consultancy services, and is part of the Montel Group.
The company was founded in 2003 to provide cloud-based data services to the GB power market, and their European energy insight platform provides comprehensive access to European energy market activity and trends. As the energy transition has proceeded, EnAppSys has grown dramatically and become a key player in the market. They supply some of the biggest wholesale energy market participants in Europe from their base in Stockton-on-Tees and EnAppSys is a well-regarded SaaS data and insight provider.
Interview with Jean-Paul Harreman, Director of EnAppSys BV.
Easy Engineering: A brief description of the company and its activities.
Jean-Paul Harreman: We seek to provide incredibly detailed and accurate market insight, supported by data and driven by the ongoing needs of the market. Our close links with traders across Europe gives us the ability to provide high-value products and services across the European region.
At EnAppSys, we are passionate about creating a level playing field for everyone working in the energy sector. For us, that means facilitating energy transition at the lowest possible cost to consumers.
E.E: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
J.P.H: The main area of activity for EnAppSys is Europe, where we provide all our consultancy and market data services.
EnAppSys is a unique organization in the energy industry. Whereas energy brokers contact companies to get them the best energy deal, we operate between wholesale energy participants – for example, power stations, energy suppliers, large industrial consumers, renewable generators, traders and grid operators.
We collect, cleanse, consolidate, process, engineer, calculate, project and forecast energy data in real time for 32 European countries. Our customers use this to optimize their supply, generation and trading positions so that they can get best value for themselves and their end customers.
Europe’s electricity market is data-rich and we hold more than 50,000,000,000 data items, import 22TB of data a month and serve 10M requests for our customers every day. We use a cutting-edge, scalable data platform that delivers, consolidates, and aggregates data and forecasts in real-time for more than 5,000 users in more than 30 countries.
Our renewable energy, demand and price forecasts are used by 120 companies. These forecasts utilise machine learning tools and self-tuning algorithms to run real-time forecasts of market prices and generation across Europe.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
J.P.H: Our data and insight platform for the GB electricity market has been our best seller for several years. It is used by around 80% of wholesale market participants in the GB market. Since then, we have grown our product suite into adjacent markets in the island of Ireland (NI + RoI are one market), The Netherlands, Belgium and France.
We have transformed the platform over the past 12 months to cover the whole of Europe. At the same time, we are now picking up multiple customers who want complete coverage of the whole of Europe and are expanding quickly into other European markets.
As power markets move closer to real time and as the renewable transition continues at pace across Europe, we are experiencing an explosion of companies entering the market. EnAppSys assists these new companies to enter the market using consultancy and market entry services. We have aided 25 companies to enter the market with our market interface products and growth in this part of our business continues to build in 2023 with around four companies a month entering the market using our tools.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
J.P.H: We offer a wide range of products, from a market data platform, which helps customers analyse and understand energy markets in Europe, to bespoke consultancy services that help customers to successfully navigate the energy market.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
J.P.H: There is never a dull moment in energy markets. The markets depend on the economics of supply and demand, technical challenges, international connections, weather patterns, regulation, investments, climate and politics and geopolitics. Almost all of these areas are currently subject to unprecedented levels of change.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
J.P.H: Volatile (and high) cost for fossil fuels (especially gas) are still at levels not seen before the Ukraine crisis, and these feed directly into power prices
Massive development of renewable energy, causing the traditionally centrally managed power markets to require distributed optimization and massive investments in flexibility
A changing climate, affecting wind and solar generation, but also the very important hydropower, which constitutes about one third of power generation in Europe
Inter-related markets increase the complexity of local decision making. Problems with the French nuclear fleet and drought in Scandinavia and South-West Europe have rippled through European markets, increasing interdependence of large economies
On a local level, regulations and politics are challenged to keep up with the changing landscape.
On a global level, price shocks due to geopolitical events affect short-term prices, but also the appetite for longer term investment
This all leads to increasing data-intensity of the sector and challenges to keep track of all the influences, in an already technically and economically challenging environment.
The main challenge for companies operating in energy markets today is to optimize revenue streams over different markets, services and time horizons.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
J.P.H: The market data platform is constantly growing and updating with real-time energy market data. We add new charts and data series depending on market changes and customer demands. The market is constantly developing and by monitoring the changes and trends in the market, we maintain our platform to be relevant to the end user
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
J.P.H: We are poised to make significant gains in the following months as our business expands its product footprint into more countries. We anticipate recruiting more employees in overseas markets as we grow our product offerings and customer coverage. These will be supported by expanding our team in Stockton to provide a central software development resource alongside core business development functions and admin and finance functions.
Recently we were acquired by the Montel Group; this will enable us to explore other markets and offer our customers complementary products.
Eventually, EnAppSys will leverage some of its long-term R&D projects on domestic demand response to build solutions to allow ordinary consumers to access and participate in the wholesale electricity markets. This will enable them to benefit from flexible pricing in the electricity market and reduce carbon usage in their home as we work together to create a zero-carbon electricity system.
Geographically we plan to extend provision of our services to other continents as we cement our reputation as the go-to people for energy data services across the world.
