Energy Procurement Strategy
Codified expertise for electricity and gas procurement, tariff optimization, demand-charge management, and renewable PPA evaluation — the working knowledge of a senior C&I energy procurement manager running a $15M-$80M annual spend across dozens of facilities.
A procurement strategy that saves 8% on paper but exposes the company to a $2M budget variance in a bad weather year isn't a win — it's a risk nobody priced, and most teams find out the hard way during a polar vortex or a Winter Storm Uri.
Who it's for: facilities and operations managers responsible for multi-site energy spend, corporate sustainability teams tracking Scope 2 and RE100 commitments, finance teams building annual energy budgets, procurement professionals issuing electricity or gas RFPs, anyone evaluating a PPA offer or a demand-charge mitigation investment
Example
"Evaluate this 15-year virtual PPA offer at $35/MWh with $5/MWh basis risk" → A basis-risk assessment using historical node-to-hub spreads, a risk-adjusted NPV against the forward curve with high/low gas-price scenarios, curtailment exposure analysis, and credit/LC requirement flags — the same evaluation framework a procurement manager would bring to the CFO
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
npx ccplaybooks add energy-procurement-strategy# Energy Procurement Strategy
Codified expertise for electricity and gas procurement, tariff optimization, demand charge management, renewable PPA evaluation, and multi-facility energy cost management — the domain knowledge of a senior energy procurement manager at a large commercial and industrial (C&I) consumer running an annual spend of $15M–$80M across 10–50+ sites.
## When to Use
- Running an RFP for electricity or natural gas supply across multiple facilities
- Analyzing tariff structures and rate-schedule optimization opportunities
- Evaluating demand-charge mitigation strategies (load shifting, battery storage, power factor correction)
- Assessing PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) offers for on-site or virtual renewable energy
- Building annual energy budgets and hedge-position strategies
- Responding to market-volatility events (a polar vortex, a heat wave, a regulatory change)Get new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Distills the working knowledge of a senior commercial and industrial energy procurement manager into decision frameworks for the core recurring decisions: how much price risk to retain versus transfer to suppliers (fixed vs. index vs. layered), how to identify and mitigate demand charges (the most controllable line item on most bills), how to evaluate a PPA offer for basis risk and curtailment exposure, and how to report procurement decisions to three different audiences — finance (budget variance), sustainability (Scope 2 progress), and operations (real constraints) — without restating the same numbers three flat ways.
It covers utility bill anatomy (why energy, demand, capacity, and T&D charges need independent analysis rather than one blended "rate"), the specific mechanics of demand-charge ratchet clauses and capacity-tag calculations that catch procurement teams off guard, and a set of key edge cases drawn from real market events — Winter Storm Uri's index-pricing exposure, VPPA basis risk in congested zones, and the demand-charge ratchet trap — each with the lesson it actually teaches.
Quick Start
Step 1: Create a Project Folder
mkdir energy-procurement && cd energy-procurement
Step 2: Download the Template
Click Download above, then:
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ./
Step 3: Work Through a Procurement Decision
claude
Describe the decision in front of you — an RFP to structure, a PPA offer to evaluate, a demand-charge spike to investigate — and Claude will apply the relevant framework and core knowledge to it.
Tips & Best Practices
- Never try to "call the bottom" of the energy market. Watch the forward curve against its 5-year historical range and accelerate or decelerate your layering schedule accordingly, rather than trying to time a single optimal purchase.
- Always check a tariff for ratchet provisions before any facility modification that could spike peak load — a single accidental peak can lock in elevated billing demand for up to 11 months.
- Quantify the same procurement decision three different ways for three different stakeholders: budget impact and variance for finance, Scope 2 progress for sustainability, operational constraints for operations.
Limitations
- Decision-support knowledge, not a substitute for a licensed energy broker, legal counsel on contract terms, or a qualified risk-management function for large notional hedges.
- Market structures and ISO/RTO rules referenced are US-centric; other jurisdictions have materially different regulatory architectures.
- Dollar figures and rate ranges are illustrative benchmarks — always verify against current forward curves and your utility's actual tariff sheet before acting on them.