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With operations in over 50 countries worldwide, this Fortune 100 automotive company is one of the world’s leading car manufacturers. With a global, energy-intensive portfolio of showrooms, manufacturing plants, and electric vehicle charging points, controlling energy usage and spending is a top priority.
Prior to 2020, the auto manufacturer had multiple contractual agreements with energy providers per region, with pricing and contract terms negotiated on a short-term basis. This decentralization made it particularly challenging for the company to gather complete datasets for their internal reporting, with the added concern that invoices from the respective energy suppliers were insufficiently monitored and managed.
In terms of energy sourcing, the company’s primary driver in North America was to optimize supply contracts to generate cost savings, whereas their priority in Europe was to transition their portfolio—which was predominantly supplied by traditional brown energy sources—to a renewable supply.
The company was looking for an experienced sustainability consultant with global reach matched with local expertise, in-depth experience in data acquisition, expense management and green energy procurement, and a robust and multi-lingual data management platform—and selected ENGIE Impact as their partner.
ENGIE Impact’s international footprint and holistic service offering meant that the automotive company only needed to partner with one consultant for all their global energy and sustainability needs.
Phase one of the partnership involved the collection, centralization and auditing of the company’s ongoing and historical utility data on a global scale, including for the company’s large number of landlord sites across Asia and Oceania.
The data was loaded into ENGIE Impact’s Data Management Platform, where the invoice validation team flagged and investigated any billing errors and resolved them directly with the company’s energy suppliers. For sites in North America, ENGIE Impact also paid the manufacturer’s invoices once all errors and supplier queries had been resolved.
To shift the company’s European sites from a supply of traditional brown energy to renewables, ENGIE Impact conducted a risk management strategy workshop with the manufacturer’s in-house teams to determine the most advantageous energy purchasing strategy based on the company’s ambitions, country locations, and appetite for risk. ENGIE Impact then launched a competitive RFP exercise to select the highest quality renewable energy suppliers per region.
ENGIE Impact performed rate monitoring and optimization services across the United States—analyzing the manufacturer’s electricity and natural gas accounts to calculate optimal rate structures based on historical consumption and published rates. This combined with global market intelligence and analytics meant the company never missed an opportunity to capitalize on market movements.
In the UK, ENGIE Impact performed an end-to-end network connection and fiscal metering service for electricity and natural gas connections. The team established the maximum power available at the manufacturer’s sites, applied to the local distribution operators for network upgrades, and coordinated the metering for the required connection dates on the company’s behalf.
ENGIE Impact brought a wide range of experience and expertise to support the auto manufacturer’s local needs across 34 countries, helping them work towards their global sustainability goals.
Thorough data collection, invoice validation and customized reporting through ENGIE Impact’s Platform provided the company with immediate visibility into their cost and consumption at the portfolio, regional and site-level. The team managed an annual energy consumption of 2.3 TWh across more than 2,500 sites globally, processing 33,000 invoices per year received in 23 languages, of which 39% required investigation with the company’s energy suppliers. This detailed audit reassured the manufacturer in knowing that they would only be paying for the energy they consumed.
manufacturing, retail and vehicle charging sites served
invoices processed per year, of which 39% were investigated
GWh renewable energy procured in EU over a 12-month period
countries served across four continents
The manufacturer was able to leverage the data presented on the Platform to quickly identify which site locations were the highest and lowest consumers of energy, and which were not operating cost effectively—allowing them to make data-driven decisions towards their financial and environmental objectives. The processing and payment of the company’s bills paired with ongoing supplier and data management activities ensured that invoices were paid accurately and on time.
Through the competitive procurement process, ENGIE Impact was able to secure the best supply rates and significantly condense the number of suppliers and internal signatories per country, while ensuring a reliable and cost-effective supply of energy. The process helped the company to drive costs out of their operations, manage energy price and budgetary risks, and strengthen governance over its global energy spend. Over a 12-month period, ENGIE Impact procured a volume of 390 MWh of energy for the manufacturer in the United States, and 235 GWh of renewable energy in Europe.
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