The current economic and political turbulence has created heightened challenges for property and asset management
companies and their clients and tenants alike.
And so, implementing an effective energy procurement strategy that has bettered market performance has played an important role in reducing the level of increase in the service charge for JLL’s clients.
This has in turn supported JLL’s clients to continue delivering competitive costs for their client’s tenants (where gas and electricity are recharged) because of the market bettering prices achieved with the support of Inenco.
* The cost benefit referenced in this case study is based upon the prevailing market rate on 1st April 2022.
JLL is one of the world’s pre-eminent property management companies with a complex portfolio covering 2000 properties in the UK alone.
Inenco has worked in partnership with JLL Property and Asset Management for over a decade but the last year has created fresh challenges on how best to optimise price and mitigate risk.
The focus was on 6 main factors that serve to optimise performance:
The energy commodity market has typically worked in cycles of peaks and lows over approximately 5 years. One of the biggest influencers on the price that Inenco can achieve for clients is the ability to trade during favourable times. The market can be extremely volatile and thus Inenco’s consistent recommendation has been to establish frameworks that allow a suitable trading window.
This recommendation was accepted by JLL and has provided the opportunity to secure prices for future contract years prior
to the market increases, we have seen in the past 12 months.
Managing credit facilities has become a key issue for utility suppliers in recent times and ensuring a “fit for purpose” credit solution was important, especially for managing agents where the nature of the sector means many entities will not have a credit history.
The basket opens the doors to a flexibly traded solution for these entities. It was also important to deliver a framework to manage volume changes that did not add to cost pressure. Although, supplier charges are a relatively small part of the overall cost it was also important to ensure that these were competitively negotiated.
The long-established relationship with JLL enabled us to put a strategy in place that could take advantage of the market low in the Spring of 2021 and protect JLL’s position for several years.
Our risk management scoping discussion enabled us to jointly formalise a strategy that protects price but allows gains to be made if prices fall. However, to take full advantage of any market changes does require active trading by the experienced Inenco team.
Having a clear understanding of the required volume of energy proved particularly challenging during the period of lockdown and the stop/start nature of business activity because of government restrictions and the associated economic turbulence.
A monthly re-forecasting process was therefore important in looking to understand if we needed to buy more or reduce what has been purchased in the future.
Where more volume may be required going forward then it was also important to assess when this should be done to make the best advantage of price trends. This process works in not only mitigating risk but managing the risk and using it as a positive way to manage price.
JLL is strongly committed to its sustainability agenda and mapping a journey to achieve carbon net zero. In that context, all electricity is backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certification.
As in any successful relationship, good communication is key. This is based upon ensuring regular reporting and contact plus a formal review of performance and re-assessment of the appropriate trading strategy.
This is typically held between JLL’s Category Manager and Inenco’s Account Director, Trader and Procurement Specialist. Quarterly newsletters are also issued to the broader JLL stakeholder community or on an ad hoc basis if important issues arise e.g., the recent impact of the Ukrainian conflict.
If you would like to find out more or discuss the options for your organisation, please get in touch.
Contact Information
Tel: 01253 78 52 94
Email: enquiries@inenco.com