Centrica Energy Trading A/S Delivers Solid Performance in FY22: A year that redefined complexity and volatility in energy markets

During 2022, uncertainty around energy supplies and Europe’s continued dependence on fossil fuels drove and defined prices in energy markets, with price levels and volatility reaching new all-time highs. As an established market participant, Centrica Energy Trading’s people and organisation made significant contributions to help stabilise energy markets in 2022 and pave the way to further normalised price levels in 2023.

Centrica Energy Trading A/S has delivered solid financial results in FY22, with trading income and revenue reaching DKK 35.7 billion and a profit-before-tax of DKK 5.8 billion. For twenty-five years Centrica Energy Trading has been serving energy markets as they evolve, backed by their strong parent group, and leveraging capabilities within management of renewable assets and large-scale energy trading to play an important role in the green transition and deliver significant value to both society and shareholders.

The following highlights the key successes of Centrica Energy Trading’s 2022 results:

-EBIT of DKK 5.8 billion, tax contribution of DKK 1.17 billion

-Renewable Power Purchase Agreements completed: 201, 151% YoY

-Commenced integration of Optimisation teams located in Belgium

-During the year 119 new employees were onboarded

-Recognised as a Great Place to Work^® and top employer for women

“During 2022, energy became a public and political focal point within an increasingly tense geopolitical environment. Through market turbulence and uncertainty our organisation has stood resilient and delivered excellent performance. We’ve seen significant growth in our PPA business and expanded our capabilities to integrate and optimise new energy technologies. I have no doubt we are well-positioned to continue delivery as an enabler of the green transition whilst supporting European security of supply” said Kristian Gjerløv-Juel, Director for Renewable Energy Trading & Optimisation at Centrica Energy Trading.

“Extreme market volatility and prices resulted in a particularly challenging year for energy markets. Our results demonstrate the robustness of our mature trading platform and solid risk and capital management capabilities. I’m proud of the excellent performance delivered by our teams. Despite the stress and uncertainty arising when operating in such a turbulent market environment, we managed to enter new gas markets, further build on our algorithms and machine learning agenda, and delivering an important contribution to delivering on European gas storage filling requirements and ensuring security of supply” said Mandeep Bamal, Director for Trading, Analytics and Algorithmic Trading at Centrica Energy Trading.

Moving Energy into a Fully Renewable Future
Enabling the renewable transition sits at the very core of Centrica Energy Trading’s strategy, and during 2022 several key milestones were reached. These include signing its first electrolyser agreement in the Nordics to optimise power delivery according to hydrogen production needs and grid balance, securing management of 142MW of large-scale battery assets, and the first set of Corporate PPAs in the UK with additionality. During the year we started organisational integration of the former Centrica Business Solutions optimisation team in Belgium with Centrica Energy Trading. Allowing creation of a powerful and unified market proposition, the integration accelerates our capabilities in providing services and solutions that support balancing of the grid.

Record Number of International Energy Movers by Nature
Setting new records in the people space, during 2022 Centrica Energy Trading onboarded 119 new colleagues across their offices in Denmark, Germany, and Singapore, and commenced onboarding of 39 new colleagues from Centrica’s Optimisation team in Belgium. Across the business the number of nationalities represented grew to 40 (from 32 in 2021), underlining the need to recruit highly specialised international talent to keep ahead of the energy curve. The market for talent in the energy sector is global, and while Centrica Energy Trading both follows and supports good governance on remuneration policies for employees and executives, it’s important to recognise that the war for talent in the energy industry takes place at a global level.

Strengthening the Sector and Building on Maturity
Throughout the year the energy trading sector as a whole was subject to greater scrutiny driven by issues around governance, compliance and renumeration policies for employees and executives.  Centrica Energy Trading wholly supports measures aimed at strengthening resources available to regulators, ongoing audits of compliance policies, and requirements to good governance including certification of traders, mandatory compliance functions, and fit-and-proper evaluations of the board.

You can see the full report here.