How Marin Clean Energy Slashed Complex Contract Generation and Invoicing Time by 90%
Customer In 2010, Marin Clean Energy (MCE) became the first Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) in California. It is a not-for-profit agency that serves 1.5 million residents and businesses in four counties north of San Francisco with a peak load of 1,400 MW.
Background MCE’s work with renewable project developers involves complex PPAs that require detailed calculations for monthly invoicing.
Results MCE assessed four software vendors and established a scoring matrix comprised of several attributes that PowerCore and ContractCore scored highest on.
Project Information
By procuring almost one gigawatt of power from solar, wind, biogas, geothermal, and hydroelectric sources via more than 50 PPAs, MCE needed an end-to-end software system to streamline its counterparty invoice validation and creation, and implement advanced analytics and reporting.
Challenges
Many Complex Power Purchase Agreements
MCE has several dozen PPAs with terms of 15-20 years. Managing and invoicing these involved detailed calculations that became increasingly challenging in a dynamic CAISO market.
Complex PPA Calculations
MCE’s contracts required intricate calculations, particularly around energy curtailments, to ensure accurate payments to counterparties.
Managing Variable Contract Terms
Each contract had unique terms, making it challenging to standardize processes across dozens of agreements in the dynamic CAISO market.
Manual, Error-Prone Systems
Previously relying on Excel with VBA programming, MCE struggled with errors, time-consuming processes, and lack of traceability. Nontechnical staff found the setup difficult to use, leading to additional issues in invoicing.
Benefits
More Streamlined Operations
ContractCore centralized data access, simplified PPA management, and integrated smoothly with MCE’s ETRM and general ledger systems.
Improved Auditability
ContractCore provided a reliable system of record and advanced dispute tracking.
Enhanced Invoicing Accuracy
Data integration was fully automated to reduce invoicing errors and ensure consistency.
Boosted Productivity and Time Savings
MCE invoice validation times dropped from four to five hours to less than 10 minutes per invoice.
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