ENGIE Brasil Energia announces the launch of its digital energy channel. Known as Energy Place, this innovative platform was designed to simplify the negotiation and management of energy contracts on the Free Market and represents one further step forward on the company’s path to digitization. Its creation comes soon after the recent launch in July of E-conomiza, a platform dedicated to the retail trading segment and now to be integrated under the umbrella of the Energy Place.

Energy Place comes into being as an online digital platform which brings together ENGIE and its clients, managers, consultancies and those still not clients of the company. In addition to an energy e-commerce platform, the tool was designed to provide information, a track record of consumption and works as a 100% digital relationship and service channel.

By completing a simple registration process, Free Market agents such as generators, trading companies, free and special consumers are able to access Energy Place. The platform ensures that negotiations and closing of energy purchases are conducted in the most secure and rapid manner and with the greatest of transparency for all concerned.

Convenience, ease, and security 

ENGIE’s Energy Place was designed to improve the client experience from the start to the finish of their purchase transaction. “We want to serve our consumers in an integrated way for the different phases of their process on the platform. From the digital option to the personalized service by our team of energy specialists, over the short and long term. The tool was conceived and adjusted to give the market a service suited to each stage of the process and for each type of client”, explains Marketing and Market Intelligence manager for Energy at ENGIE Brasil, Maury Garrett.

For ENGIE’s managers and clients, Energy Place allows visualization of the contractual data of its clients: supply data, consumer units, financial guarantees, monitoring of consumption and comparison with the contracted party. It will also be possible to file a request with ENGIE  to interact with the company’s specialists on matters such as sales, contracts, seasonal weighting, and migration. And also, the purchase of energy for closing off a month.

As an agent which attends final consumers and plants, Volga Gestora de Energia has already used Energy Place for the monthly closing of consumers in its client portfolio. “Our experience with the platform has been excellent. It is the perfect option for effecting the monthly closing  of small volumes in the short term. In addition to the all-round ease of purchasing online, selecting the product, and adding to the electronic shopping basket, registration with the CCEE (Electric Energy Trade Board) is immediate and prices were very competitive”, says Denise Zanatto, the company’s founding partner.

Conversely for those who are still not clients of ENGIE, the platform allows energy to be purchased online for closing off the month as well as providing an entire range of products especially designed for those wishing to migrate to the Free Energy Market. “These are solutions which simplify and improve the relationship of our clients and partners with their energy assets. The platform provides  the convenience of purchasing energy without having to constantly call people or exchanging e-mails. It is simple, easy, and free of bureaucracy and is user friendly as with any other e-commerce. The idea is that the experience for purchasing energy should be as easy as buying a book through an app, for example”, compares Garrett.

Growth of the Free Energy Market

 Energy Place’s launch comes in the wake of the growth in the Free Energy Market in Brazil. Movement in this market has increased year after year, closing 2019 with a volume of operations 6% higher than 2018, turning over R$ 134 billion. This is a segment that already represents 30% of all electric energy consumed in Brazil according to Brazilian Energy Traders Association (Abraceel) data.

In September 2020 alone, the number of consumers trading energy on the Free Market rose by 22% compared with the same period in 2019. At the end of the month, CCEE data shows the Free Contracting Environment (ACL) had 8,247 agents for the various consumer classes compared with 6,759 in 2019.