• In earlier days, the energy sector was primarily dominated by state-owned entities, however, post-liberalization of the energy sector, our client saw an opportunity and entered into the trading space.
• The company provides a range of trading services, including online trading platforms, research and analysis tools, investment advisory services, and market data and news feeds for various energy-related products such as oil, gas, electricity, and renewable energy sources.
• Additionally, it provides access to a diverse range of energy products and derivatives, including futures, options, and swaps.

Problem

• The primary challenge for the client was to establish itself as a credible player in the market.
• Furthermore, adherence to the complex regulatory guidelines of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) was another major challenge faced by our client.
• Enabling traders, buyers, and sellers to gather on the platform and use it was a tough task. The key question was to figure out an engagement medium for these actors.
• The issue was to launch different products under one umbrella as the client was looking to launch RTM, Intra Day, Forward, and Reverse auctions under the same offering.
• An upfront challenge and a potential hurdle in the product’s success was the provision of trade results right away with the help of technology.
• Integration was required with the back-office activities in order clear out the logistics and management of a successful trade transaction immediately.
• The last challenge faced was the timely delivery of the commodity. In an intraday market setup, the commodity needs to be delivered within 3 hours of trade.

Our Approach

• With help from a team of Business Analysts, SMEs of Energy Sectors, and Technical Analysts, we were able to adhere to all the complex guidelines of CERC be they technical or operational.
• The complexity of the onboarding process of traders and users was reduced to a minimum; users were able to get onboard easily within less than an hour.
• E-KYC was enabled for the users, allowing them to verify their identity in near real-time with integration with a key player in the domain.
• Within a single web panel, all four products requested by the client were launched and were viewed by users through a single URL.
• On the tech front, schedulers were configured, covering all the products that were lined to be traded and handling the bids that were taking place.
• A designated middleware was designed which offers interoperability among various systems that were there in place.
• Another aligning mechanism was designed which factors in all the desired pNc and allowed the trade to follow seamlessly.
• The entire delivery cycle was automated, right from e-cycle, and trade execution to allocation and completion of legal formalities, all the processes were automated.
• An analytics mechanism was designed to provide users with real-time insights into the trade that was happening. Additionally, the insights helped a user look after its trading needs.

Benefits

• The launch of the portal was a success, and the platform quickly gained market share.
• Within the first year of launch, the platform had over 1,000 users and had processed over 1 million transactions.
• The platform’s ability to handle the high volume of transactions and provide real-time market data was well-received by users.
• The platform was audited by independent third-party firms to ensure compliance with industry standards. The audit was cleared in the initial iteration itself with no critical or major flaws.