Aquilon Energy Services, Inc
Moving Wholesale Energy Settlement into the Cloud

Today’s energy company CIOs are looking for innovative technology solutions to improve operational efficiencies, standardize processes, and increase value to business units. Cloud's emergence has encouraged CIOs to move their activities to the cloud to capture reduced operational expenses and simplify their in-house technology footprint. "Aquilon’s Energy Settlement Network (ESN) is a SaaS service aligned with the priorities of today’s CIO’S. ESN reduces operational expenses for both the business and technology units by automating and standardizing wholesale energy settlement processes for power, natural gas and other energy commodities," says Jeffrey K. Wagner, CEO and Founder, Aquilon Energy Services, Inc. Located in Chicago and Houston, Aquilon Energy Services delivers innovative solutions for the fast-paced and complex wholesale energy industry.

Each wholesale energy company has multiple legacy systems servicing key industry processes including regulatory compliance, market pricing and trading, transmission, cyber-security, and management of voluminous stores of settlement data. “Today’s CIO is looking to improve the business value of their legacy technology. Aquilon has developed ESN with that goal in mind – we grow the value of our customer’s legacy ETRM system by automatically connecting,” says Wagner.

Aquilon's ESN is a third-party online platform that automates the exchange of settlement information and collaboration between counterparties. It processes both physical and financial bilateral wholesale energy transactions for power, natural gas, oil and other energy commodities.

The ESN is not a software package that you purchase, it’s a subscription based service priced to deliver business value to each participant from the smallest to the largest customers. “ESN’s innovative approach enables settlement analysts to quickly and corroboratively manage, access, and settle large volumes of transactions,” informs Wagner.

The wholesale energy industry is diversified with market participants including investor owned utilities, independent power producers, pipelines, ISOs, integrated energy companies, municipals, co-operatives, and marketers," says Wagner."Each of these market participants has a specific operational focus but all of them must interact during tie-outs, settlements, and dispute resolutions. “Whether they have one transaction or many, ESN automates and standardizes their settlement.”

Aquilon is benefitting the industry with reduced operational costs; less time reconciling and resolving disputes; improved compliance and audit reporting; and shortened settlement cycles

Aquilon understands the rich history of wholesale energy participants working with technology partners/vendors to develop software solutions. “Our approach to other industry technology vendors is to work closely, in particular the various ETRM vendors, to maximize the value delivered to our shared customers by leveraging the combined capability of both the ETRM system and ESN. This partnership approach allows Aquilon to quickly implement solutions addressing real industry needs and at the same time exceeding the industry’s requirements,” explains Wagner.

Aquilon's service centers, based in Houston and Chicago, are staffed with a team of professionals dedicated to providing timely energy settlement support to ensure their customers meet the tight industry settlement deadlines. The Aquilon team walks hand in hand with industry advisors gaining expert understanding of the industry.

“In-turn the advisors work closely with us to develop industry best practices and standards for counterparty collaboration and automated settlement processing,” adds Wagner.

These early advisor relationships have helped the firm to focus on automating and streamlining the settlement processes in ways that improve both the industry’s settlement cost structure and the operational cost structure of each customer.

“Aquilon is benefitting the industry with reduced operational costs; less time reconciling and resolving disputes; improved compliance and audit reporting; and shortened settlement cycles,” says Wagner.

“Longer term, the automation of the settlement process will enable energy companies to use the reduced settlement cycles to free up capital and reduce counterparty credit exposure.”