quirements across a diverse power generation mix. Utilities can also now leverage a powerful new class of Internet-based environmental compliance solutions that comprehensively cover the management of waste and water quality, spills and emissions, permits, inspections and monitoring for EPCRA, ISO 14001, the Clean Air Act and other programs. Utilities may also lack integrated environmental data with organization’s day-to-day management systems. Using this web-based software, utility professionals can easily report on a corporate portal that is accessible to all who need it.
“It’s now possible for utilities to manage air, waste and water emissions data, as well as health and safety information, using a single software platform in order to optimize compliance performance across plants and business units,” said Robert Johnson, CEO and president of ESS, a leading provider of environmental, health and safety and crisis management software for governance, risk and compliance.
CaseWorks automates and streamlines the procedural steps in rate cases and other utility regulatory procedures. The documents and data are easy to share and search in managed, virtual workspaces. The system also automatically coordinates regulatory activities with legislative bodies, legal counsel and other external groups, just the kind of advanced tools needed in today’s increasingly regulated and accountable energy industry.
BGE has certainly seen the benefits of a more responsive data management capability. The company quickly trained its key employees on the new system, then began using the solution for a gas rate case that was due in less than a month. In previous rate case submissions, the utility had filed just 50 percent of answers within the required 10-day response period. Using this next-generation system, Constellation filed 90 percent of its answers on time, and utility managers said those answers were more complete and accurate than in the past.
Constellation Energy now uses this technology to capture and preserve crucial rate case data, and using robust storage and search engine capabilities, can access that knowledge base for future rate case submissions. Company officials said the solution was easy to deploy and maintain. This approach improved the productivity of administrative employees, allowing them to generate faster and more precise answers, while reducing the time these key personnel spent on those efforts by 40 percent.
To meet the challenge of energy supply and demand, utilities need integrated business processes, innovation and solid business relationships. There are four core principles to more effectively manage risk:
1. Simplify and automate technology adoption to help employees be more productive
2. Embed risk management best practices in everyday activities and across structured and unstructured business information Enhance risk analytics and computing and unlock data for everyone
4. Define long-term sustainable risk management and compliance blueprints
By using today’s automated compliance and case management tools, energy leaders can save time and money, reduce compliance risks … and maybe sleep a little better at night.
A Baltimore Gas and Electric rate case
Constellation Energy, the nation’s largest competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers, recently put this new generation of reporting technology to work on a crucial rate case challenge.
As energy executives know, a complex rate case submission often entails thousands of requests for information, each of which must be answered quickly, completely and accurately. When Constellations’ subsidiary Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) planned a rate case effort in 2005, the first in more than five years, managers saw the need for a new and more capable case management solution.
“It’s more than a question of revenues,” said Dennis Hartline, pricing and regulatory services, BGE-Constellation Energy. “If we don’t make our projected earnings per share, we disappoint stockholders, and the value of our stock goes down. That in turn raises the cost of borrowing. If we try to cut operating expenses to compensate, that can affect the reliability of our system.” 3.
To meet those objectives, Constellation Energy deployed an automated rate case management system developed jointly by AUS Consultants and Flexnova. Case Works is built on and integrates seamlessly with the Micro-soft-based information technology environment already in place at BGE-Constellation.
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