Categories - Energy Business Awards 2007
The category explanations for each award are:
Energy trading, by definition, involves a trading-centric organisation looking to optimise profitability through financial and physical trading of energy products. Previous winners of this Award have been energy asset traders, financial institutions and brokers. This category covers participants in any or all aspects of the energy complex. It's a global Award but not awarded on the basis of multi-regional activity.
The award is not for the firm that has transacted the most volume or made the most revenue from trading activities. The primary criteria for excellence are the development of business and/or market processes and practices that advance trading and trading efficiency.
The criteria for this award are similar to those for trading. Risk management for the purposes of these Awards is defined as the measurement, management and execution of risk control. Some of the major concerns important here relate to the mitigation of credit, counterpart, price and volume risk. And with the energy market becoming increasingly convergent, advances in portfolio risk management are also important. Risk Management starts from the point of data capture and encompasses the identification of risk and the strategic development and management of the risk process. Previous winners have included financial institutions and technology companies. As such, this Award is not limited to those companies that manage their own risks but also extends to those which provide and develop risk management processes and infrastructure.
Trading in today's complex energy sectors continues to be driven by technology. This Award is granted to that company which, in the view of the judges and the votes cast, has made a unique and substantial impact on trading efficiency and effectiveness - the quality of trade execution - through technological advances. The scope of this Award comprises developments in front, middle and back office application technology; online trading; data aggregation and management; and billing systems.
This Award is not limited to enterprise-wide providers or independent software vendors.
The focus of market policy has increasingly moved toward supply security and environmental sustainability. This Award will be granted to the company or institution that has shown motivation and foresight in creating a sustainable and secure energy infrastructure for the future, with consideration also given to energy efficiency, reliability and competitiveness. Consideration will be given to those that have demonstrated a clear and unambiguous dedication to issues relating to energy efficiency, security, supply and sustainability.
Focus on research in the energy field generally, both from a technology and policy perspective - and in particular in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other supporting technologies - are essential criteria here. As such, recipients of this Award have included supranational bodies, independent 'think tanks', consultancies and regulators.
The developing markets for emissions, associated legislation, trading systems and products are key to facilitating the realisation of a new energy infrastructure. Whilst consideration will be given to those initiatives which have led to a reduction in GHG emissions, the scope of this Award extends to all emission markets and other business areas, such as environmental education, awareness and policy. While most focus is on GHG emissions, this Award reflects the pan-emissions marketplace and is not restricted to 'traded' markets. As such, this Award also embraces those market-based mechanisms, such as CDM and JI projects, which lead to positive emission reductions and technology transfer to developing markets. Previous winners have included banks, energy companies and brokers.
Renewable energy technologies are capturing an increasingly larger market share of new bulk power. The panoply of renewable energy technologies are eligible in this category: wind, photovoltaics, biogas, biomass, geothermal, small hydropower, ocean energy conversion devices etc.
The development and integration of renewable energy products and systems that promote a sustainable energy infrastructure are becoming increasingly critical. One of the areas of consideration in this category is the mitigation of security of supply concerns through the promotion of renewable energy resources. Other areas to be considered are the development of marketing and customer relationship management programmes to promote renewable energy.
Consideration will also be given to the challenge of introducing the right policy frameworks and financial tools to enable renewable energy to achieve its market potential. This applies both to maturing renewable energy markets in the OECD as well as in developing countries, which have significant potential for both larger scale on-grid and small scale off-grid investments, but where investment is put at risk from geo-political, economic and regulatory risks, and the lack of developed financial markets and products.
Increasing market consolidation and competition is placing greater importance on energy business marketing, as companies need to identify unique selling propositions and effectively communicate these to the market. This Award recognises companies that have made significant contributions in the application of marketing and communication practices, including CRM, within the energy complex.
The following three Awards are open for nominations from those companies that have broadly excelled across the above categories of excellence:
Energy Company of the Year
Energy Exchange of the Year
Energy Broker of the Year
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