Sparks Flying Between CPFL Energia and SAS
CPFL Energia, one of the largest privately owned companies in Brazil's electricity market, uses SAS ® software for electricity sales management. Dedicated to generating, distributing and marketing electricity, CPFL hopes to gain strategic market position using SAS for data management . That effort should benefit all of CPFL’s commercial activities. http://www.sas.com/technologies/dw/index.html
“We selected a system to consolidate all our available information regarding the group’s electricity sales,” says Roberto Wainstock, CPFL’s Director of Electricity Sales. “With SAS, CPFL will be more agile, with a greater ability to make decisions with flexibility. Plans include consolidating existing business processes by using SAS.”
New rules in the electricity sector spurred the creation of a free electricity market that did away with requirements forcing large consumers to purchase electricity from suppliers holding a concession in their geographic regions. This has given rise to a new market for electricity sales in Brazil. Frequent changes in the Brazilian regulatory environment require a dynamic solution like SAS, Wainstock says.
The flexibility that SAS offers will allow the company to meet current needs for analytics and adapt to future business needs, he adds. As a result, CPFL is structuring its processes to offer the best service possible to each customer.
“SAS is capable of managing electricity purchase and sale agreements – and the associated risks – in an array of different dimensions,” says Carlos Tholt, SAS Brazil Sales Manager. “SAS will meet all the needs arising from the marketing area, from preparing agreements to billing customers and handling risk analysis, in addition to complying with corporate governance requisites (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley ), and will thus impart reliability and security to the entire process.”
The solution will be entirely adapted to Brazilian legislation with the purpose of duplicating it for other Brazilian companies that are subject to reduced automation and controls.
The lack of a centralized negotiation environment is one of the features of Brazil’s electricity market, giving rise to nonstandardized agreements and leading to a high degree of complexity in the following areas: sales support and price definition (front office); contractual risk controls (middle office); electricity supply controls versus contractual conditions; preparing regulatory reports; and correct billing and accounting (back office).
“The SAS solution takes us a step forward in portfolio management activities relating to electricity purchase and sale agreements, assisting in risk analysis and management and allowing increased competitiveness – all with greater security,” says Mauro Magalhães Vieira Filho, CPFL’s Sales Director.