Energy buying community
An energy purchasing community is a special form of purchasing community . The terms energy pool or electricity and gas pool are also used synonymously. These are voluntary forms of cooperation for the purpose of common energy procurement. In principle, all customer segments can join forces - the market offers different offers for commercial and private customers.
Advantages and structures
The primary goal of an energy purchasing association is to negotiate better purchase conditions for electricity or gas by bundling demand . The members of the energy purchasing group act together as a bulk buyer and thus usually achieve far lower prices than with individual energy purchases.
Energy purchasing groups are often looked after by external management partners. These are mostly energy service providers or energy brokers who not only have negotiating skills, but also know how to buy when to buy and reputable energy suppliers . The management partners work predominantly with a fixed price fee, for which they act once on behalf of the customer. In some cases, however, the energy service providers also work on a success-related basis, ie they share a percentage of the savings.
For purchasing groups formed by companies, the focus on their own core competencies is an additional advantage: Outsourcing energy procurement frees up resources that can be used for core business .
Utilities offer large enterprises and companies in the manufacturing sector often with a high energy consumption also special collective contracts. These special conditions can also be achieved by bundling demand for smaller companies. Further advantages arise when companies with complementary consumption structures join forces.
Examples
Since energy purchasing groups are mainly offered by professional and industry associations, the majority of users are small and medium-sized companies from trade and crafts , i.e. trade customers . Examples of this are the energy purchasing association of the Baden-Württemberg Crafts Day with over 7,000 members and the energy purchasing association for the high-tech sector founded by BITKOM in 2009 . But there are also offers to bundle demand for private customers: For example, the newspaper Die Welt called on its readers in October 2010 to form an energy purchasing community.
literature
- Müller, Klaus / Reissig, Steffen (2007): Structure and potential analysis of the craft in the metropolitan region of Hanover-Braunschweig-Göttingen. Duderstadt. ISBN 978-3-936617-72-6
- Monstadt, Jochen (2004): The Modernization of Power Supply: Regional Energy and Climate Policy in the Liberalization and Privatization Process. Berlin. ISBN 3-531-14277-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Müller / Reißig 2007, p. 110
- ↑ See Monstadt 2004, p. 209
- ↑ World readers form purchasing community for energy