Energy procurement

Energy procurement is stronger when bills, load data, contract terms, certificate ownership and sustainability claims are considered together. Northmore Gordon's procurement work spans bill validation, tenders, market advice and renewable energy instruments.

Our Experience

Our Procurement Specialists have decades of experience in participating in energy markets for the industrial sector and built environment.

We can retire Carbon Offsets and RECs for you from a portfolio of projects that we have access to

We can help you negotiate complex energy contracts with energy retailers and supports you to increase the renewable energy percentage cost-effectively

Use world-leading software platform to help you validate that your energy bills are correct before you pay

Companies also have their own physical power generation, energy storage, and battery systems, making energy a critical component of their cost base. Navigating these complexities in the energy markets has never been more challenging.

Additionally, holding accounts with all the global carbon and REC registries is complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. If you manage a large number of sites, overseeing bills, confirming tariffs for each site, and ensuring the accuracy of charges becomes increasingly difficult, especially when relying on spreadsheets.

What can we help you with?

Our Energy Tendering Services include:

  • Analyse portfolio
  • Strategy options paper, and workshop to explore options for PPAs, progressive purchasing, self-surrender of certificates, links to the corporate sustainability strategy
  • Energy tendering across energy retailers with negotiation
  • Support you in accessing competitive pricing and contract timing
  • Support your decision making for supplier selection, and terms and conditions
  • Assist in procurement actions (contracting) with selected energy supplier
  • Risk assessment

NG receives the bills into its world-leading billing data management platform and

  • re-calculates each bill with the correct network tariff for the site, and compares to the actual invoice
  • checks other charges on the bills such as validation against bill of energy rates, demand rates, environmental charges, and metering charges
  • Highlights anomalies
  • Rolls sites in/out as required
  • Adds in solar meters when installations occur

Additional options may include regular billing data analysis to identify energy management opportunities

Sophisticated buyers with large portfolios are also becoming interested in:

  • Progressive Purchasing, wholesale market exposure, and participation in FCAS, or demand-response markets
  • How the energy procurement strategy can link to the Corporate Sustainability Agenda
  • Self-surrender of Environmental Certificates to reduce cost
  • Large scale or long term renewable PPAs
  • Linking the energy billing data to a Corporate Sustainability (or GHG) reporting system
  • Using the energy trends to identify energy management opportunities
  • REtailer-supplied services for Electric Vehicles
  • metering
  • load shaping for commercial benefits
  • Participation in Virtual Power Plants

Some companies wish to purchase and retire Carbon Offsets or RECs to meet their Sustainability Goals. NG holds registry accounts for:

We have relationships with traders and brokers across the globe and have purchased certificates and retired them in over 23 countries.

  • Compile a portfolio of RECs and Offsets for your review
  • Ensure the projects meet your internal criteria
  • Purchase and retire certificates
  • Send you the retirement certificate

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What procurement services does Northmore Gordon offer?

We offer Energy Tendering, Bill Validation, Strategic Advice, and Purchase and retirement of Carbon Offsets and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). Energy Tendering includes portfolio analysis, strategy workshops exploring power purchase agreements and progressive purchasing, negotiation with retailers, supplier selection support, and risk assessment. Bill Validation uses a data management platform to recalculate invoices against correct network tariffs, identify anomalies in energy rates and environmental charges, and track changes like solar installations. Strategic Advice covers topics including wholesale market participation, linking procurement to corporate sustainability goals, large-scale renewable PPAs, electric vehicle charging strategies, and virtual power plant participation. Certificate services include compiling portfolios that meet client criteria and retiring instruments across multiple registries globally.

How does Northmore Gordon's bill validation service identify cost-saving opportunities?

Our bill validation process recalculates each invoice using the correct network tariff for the site and compares the result to the actual invoice, checking energy rates, demand charges, environmental levies, and metering fees. The platform highlights billing anomalies and rolls sites in or out as required, adding solar meters when installations occur. Beyond error detection, the platform can perform regular billing data analysis to identify energy management opportunities by tracking patterns and trends. This approach establishes a reliable baseline of actual costs and consumption patterns, making it easier to spot where usage changes or procurement adjustments could reduce expenses, and providing measured evidence to support investment decisions in energy efficiency or renewable generation.

What is the purpose of Northmore Gordon's Energy Tendering service within the procurement workflow?

Energy Tendering sits within our six-stage delivery approach at the Procure stage, determining how energy is purchased through strategy, instruments, and due diligence. The service begins with portfolio analysis and a strategy options paper, then explores PPAs, progressive purchasing, and self-surrender of certificates in a workshop linked to corporate sustainability strategy. We negotiate competitive pricing across retailers, manage contract timing, support supplier and terms selection, handle procurement contracting, and conducts risk assessment. This structured approach translates strategic goals into executable commercial arrangements, protects the organisation from market exposure, and aligns energy purchasing decisions with broader decarbonisation and cost-management objectives.

Why is linking energy procurement to corporate sustainability reporting important?

Energy procurement decisions directly affect an organisation's environmental claims, carbon accounting boundaries, and reported emissions. Our strategic advice includes linking energy procurement strategy to the Corporate Sustainability Agenda and connecting energy billing data to corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting systems. This connection ensures that purchasing decisions—such as renewable PPAs, self-surrender of environmental certificates, or wholesale market participation—align with reported sustainability targets and create verifiable evidence for claims. Without this integration, procurement choices may fail to deliver the emissions reductions they appear to promise, or organisations may miss opportunities to improve their reported performance. Proper linkage also prevents double-counting and ensures that certificate retirement evidence supports the relevant accounting framework.

Which certificate registries does Northmore Gordon work with, and why does registry choice matter?

We hold accounts for ACCUs (Australian Carbon Credit Units), Verra VCUs (voluntary carbon units), LGCs (large-scale generation certificates), STCs (small-scale technology certificates), I-RECs (international renewable energy certificates), and NZECs, and has purchased and retired certificates in over 23 countries through relationships with global traders and brokers. Registry choice matters because different instruments serve different purposes: ACCUs and VCUs address carbon offsets, LGCs and STCs cover renewable electricity attributes under Australian schemes, I-RECs apply internationally, and NZECs suit New Zealand portfolios. Selecting the correct registry and instrument type affects eligibility, accounting treatment, retirement evidence, and whether the certificate supports the intended claim under the applicable reporting framework. Our multi-registry capability allows organisations to match their procurement to their actual emissions scope, jurisdictions, and sustainability commitments.

How does Northmore Gordon's strategic procurement advice address wholesale energy market participation?

Our strategic advice for sophisticated energy buyers includes guidance on wholesale market exposure and participation in FCAS (Frequency Control Ancillary Services) or demand-response markets. Rather than remaining a passive electricity consumer, organisations can participate in wholesale markets to reduce costs, generate revenue, or support grid stability. FCAS participation leverages controllable load or generation assets to provide frequency services, while demand-response arrangements involve adjusting consumption during peak periods. We help clients assess whether these options fit their operational constraints, energy strategy, and financial objectives. This advice connects procurement strategy to operational flexibility and emerging revenue opportunities, particularly relevant for industrial facilities and utilities with suitable equipment or load profiles.

What does 'self-surrender of environmental certificates' mean in procurement strategy?

Self-surrender of environmental certificates is an alternative to selling them to third parties. Instead of receiving cash from a certificate sale, an organisation retires certificates against its own emissions inventory or sustainability claims. This approach can reduce overall procurement costs by eliminating the need to purchase separate offsets or renewable attributes, since the certificates generated by internal projects (such as solar installations or energy efficiency upgrades) directly support the organisation's decarbonisation goals. We advise on whether self-surrender aligns with the client's accounting framework, reporting deadlines, and financial objectives compared with selling certificates and purchasing instruments separately. This strategy is particularly valuable when an organisation has confidence in its own project delivery and wants to minimise third-party dependencies while maintaining compliance with reporting obligations.

How do Northmore Gordon's procurement services connect to energy audits and measurement and verification?

Our Procure stage (stage five) follows Assess, Build the Case, Capture Value, and Deliver stages. Procurement depends on prior outputs: energy audits and measurement and verification establish what energy is consumed and what savings have been achieved, which informs portfolio analysis and tendering scope. Bill validation and usage data feed into understanding current procurement costs and identifying baseline costs against which new arrangements can be compared. Once procurement decisions are implemented—such as renewable PPAs or certificate purchases—ongoing measurement and performance tracking (stage six, Perform) verify that contracted energy delivery and certificate retirement align with actual consumption and sustainability claims. This sequence ensures that procurement strategy rests on reliable data and that execution is monitored for commercial and environmental outcomes.

What practical information should an organisation prepare before engaging Northmore Gordon for energy procurement advice?

Based on our project brief guidance, organisations should prepare site locations, current energy contracts, existing bills or consumption data, major energy sources and consumption patterns, operating constraints, current project stage, sustainability targets or reporting deadlines, and the business decision procurement needs to support. For portfolio tendering, compile contract expiry dates, price history, retailer performance, and any prior certificate arrangements or environmental attribute ownership. If wholesale market participation is being considered, document controllable assets, load profiles, and grid connection capabilities. If bills are problematic or costs appear high, provide a representative sample of recent invoices with network tariff information. This preparation helps Northmore Gordon scope the engagement, assess compatibility of different service options (tendering, bill validation, strategic advice, or certificate services), and identify the most valuable starting point.

Why is due diligence on carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates important in procurement?

Environmental certificates represent claims about carbon reductions or renewable energy attributes, and purchasing low-quality or ineligible instruments can undermine sustainability reporting, attract regulatory or reputational risk, or fail to support the intended accounting claim. Due diligence assesses whether a certificate meets the organisation's internal criteria, comes from an approved registry, represents an eligible activity or project, and contains verifiable retirement evidence. Our offset and certificate procurement service includes compiling portfolios that meet client criteria before purchase, ensuring the projects align with the organisation's standards (which may be stricter than regulatory minimums), and managing the purchase and retirement process. This approach prevents organisations from inadvertently purchasing ineligible instruments, supports transparent reporting, and ensures that certificates actually deliver the environmental benefits claimed.

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