Energy Service
VARO “lifecycle service” is a complete progression of professional support for decision making, execution and ongoing assistance.
Our Energy sector specializes in commodity procurement, risk management, renewable energy support, contract management, engineering analysis, invoice validation/auditing, invoice processing and accounts payable management.
Energy Overview
Procurement and Risk Management
Wherever state regulations have restructured the purchasing of Electric Supply and Natural Gas Supply services, VARO provides comprehensive support in our client’s decision process:
- Risk Tolerance – the foundation of a client’s purchasing strategy is their desired level of tolerance for energy price risk. This may result in fully-fixed rates, fully-variable rates or a blend of fixed and variable positions – for the energy commodity or the ancillary cost components of a kWh or Dth. For clients with significant energy volumes, the strategy may focus on system-based purchase triggers that respond to market movements and the client’s price targets.
- Consumption Forecasting – procurement decisions often do not place enough attention on volume risk that comes from contractual commitments with energy suppliers. The suppliers are required to schedule precise volumes of power or natural gas to be transported to the local utility system – and the responsibility for these volumes may be assigned to each customer in the form of a monthly volume commitment. Therefore, it’s important to assess volume forecasts in a way that limits the risk that comes from changes in a client’s demand for energy – including factors such as weather volatility and changes in business operations.
- Competitive Bids – VARO works with premier energy suppliers in a bidding process that ensures our clients benefit from the most economical offers available in the market. This work involves a large commitment of time and deep industry knowledge and relationships, all of which VARO brings to the client procurement process.
- Recommendations – VARO completes the process with a summary of supplier proposals and a recommended course of action, followed by a contractual review.
Renewable Energy
Is your organization concerned with environmental responsibility and the carbon footprint of your business? We can support your need for carbon emission reporting or the options for producing your own renewable energy. VARO and its business partners will provide a comprehensive assessment of the details, expenses, pros and cons to hosting your own “green energy” installation or the alternative of procuring Renewable Energy Credits.
Contract Management
Not all supplier contracts are created equal! We strongly encourage our clients to closely review all supply agreements. In addition, VARO specialists offer comments on common areas of concern and ensure the pricing, volume and term correspond to client decisions.
VARO pays particular attention to contract expirations and our database system tracks the proper timing for alerting our clients and initiating new procurement decision cycles.
Engineering Analysis
It’s often said that energy procurement is about “quantity, price and term”. Most buyers typically focus on price and term while the consumption (quantity) is either ignored or set aside to be addressed in the future. With social, political and government circles increasingly focused on global warming and “environmental sustainability”, more businesses are assessing their carbon emissions and looking for ways to reduce their overall consumption of energy generated from fossil fuels.
Whether your business is interested in an initial carbon footprint assessment, an energy load profile or a full engineering analysis of your facilities and power-consuming systems, VARO and its business partners can provide answers and guidance.
Invoice Validation and Audits
Ensuring that contracted rates are correctly billed on supplier invoices is fundamentally important but professional audits of past invoices from all utility service providers is further recommended. Historical budget assurance and capitalizing on potential refunds from past billing errors are key elements of VARO’s lifecycle service.
Invoice Processing and Accounts Payable Management
For clients with numerous utility accounts, processing and paying invoices and managing the entire accounts payable process can be tedious and resource-intensive. VARO offers professional invoice processing and A/P management through a dynamic software-based program that even provides reporting exports that are compatible with a client’s accounting software system.
