Weather risk management in its third decade – enabling new energy business models

The Weather and Energy team of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions invited energy industry experts to discuss the latest trends in European weather risk management. Now in its 7th year, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions' Annual Weather and Energy Conference had evolved to become one of the leading industry events in Europe.

Summary of the agenda of the main conference day - 7th of June 

Big data and more sophisticated analytic tools are available in growing numbers – what does this mean for the weather risk management space? Demand for wind hedging is picking up. And what about the end consumers? Are utilities transforming their businesses effectively to meet their needs? These are just some of the topics we will address at our gathering this year. 

08.30 Registration and coffee

09.00 Welcome address - Stuart Brown, Head Origination Weather & Energy EMEA and APAC, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions; Juerg Trueb, Head of Environmental & Commodity Markets, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

09.15 Keynote speech European utilities and the energy market: what now? Where are the opportunities for investors? - Simon Wilde, Senior Managing Director, Macquarie Capital, London.

9:45 Big data, new analytics and the Internet of Things: How will they produce the weather products of the future? Our ability to process information, visualize and understand it is growing fast. And the modelling and data that drive weather measuring and forecasting are changing with lightning speed. This session will explore how that could lead to much bigger, better and more widely useable weather risk hedge products. - Mark Stephens Row, Sales Engineer, The Weather Company; Dr. Martin Fengler, CEO, Meteomatics; Stephen Doherty, CEO, Speedwell Weather & WeatherXchange

10:45 Coffee & networking break

11:15 European utilities: replacing the business model of the past - Dr. Thierry Bros, Senior Research Fellow, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

11:45 Lunch

12:45 Keynote speech Solar Impulse: managing weather risks on a pioneering project. Solar Impulse completed the first Round-the-World solar flight last year without a drop of fuel, proving that clean technologies can do what we once thought was impossible. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions was an official partner and sole insurance provider of this pioneering adventure. - Bertrand Piccard, Initiator, Chairman and Pilot of Solar Impulse. Gregory Blatt, Head of Marketing and Communications, Managing Director, Solar Impulse.

13:30 Prosumers, smart infrastructure and customer service in the new utility model The energy utility as we know it is a thing of the past. Europe's largest ones are restructuring, and a common theme is the need for product innovation and getting closer to the customer. Meanwhile, with solar energy on rooftops and smart meters in the home, customers aren't what they used to be. This session will navigate us through this changing landscape with the help of people who are in the thick of it in today's energy world. - Moderated by Dr. Jayesh Parmar, Partner Energy & Resources, Baringa Partners; Patrick Schneckenburger, Vice President – Customer Solutions, E.ON SE; Jennifer Salmon, Senior Energy Trader, Hudson Energy; Simon Anderson, Chief Strategy Officer, geo

15:00 Coffee & networking break

15:30 Hedging wind risk: new products and practices The wind energy industry is hitting new strides every year, and moving rapidly away from subsidized prices to market prices. Globally, wind assets are maturing and changing ownership, and windpower is a traded commodity. The need for hedging products is growing, and this panel will explore the ways wind risk management products are evolving to meet that need. - Dr. Konstantin Lenz, Country Manager Germany, Nasdaq OMX; Guy Auger, CEO, Greensolver; Uli Suedhoff, Renewables Business Development Leader, GE Renewables

16:30 Setting up a weather shop - what are the pitfalls?  (Session 7) We close the day with a roundtable discussion featuring the experiences of firms that have created in-house centers of competence in hedging weather. As new entrants to weather hedging do the same, what should they be alert for? - Sébastien Bertrand, Head of Weather & Energy business, Engie; Muammer Cider, Origination Team Leader, Enerjisa

17:30 Closing remarks - Juerg Trueb, Head of Environmental & Commodity Markets, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

18:00 Depart for social program

19:00 Post-conference dinner on top of Reichstag at the Kaefer Dachgarten restaurant. - Please note the fact that due to tightened security measures at the German Bundestag, we will require the surname, first name and date of birth of all attending guests. We will pass this information on to the police and security services. Please also note that admittance shall be granted with valid photo ID (passport, no driving liscense) only.

Do you have any questions about the agenda? Please send us an email.

Event summary and how to register

6 June 2017, Tuesday
7:00 pm - Informal pre-conference welcome. Join us for casual drinks and dinner in Tiergarten at Café am Neuen See

7 June 2017, Wednesday
8:30 am - Registration and breakfast reception at Waldorf Astoria, Berlin
9:00 am - 7th Weather & Energy Conference at Waldorf Astoria, Berlin
6:00 pm - Post-conference dinner on top of Reichstag at the Kaefer Dachgarten Restaurant overlooking Berlin's skyline - Please note the fact that due to tightened security measures at the German Bundestag, the restaurant requires the surname, first name and date of birth of all attending guests in advance. We will contact you to get those details. Please also note that you will need a valid photo ID (passport, no driving liscense) in order to enter the restaurant.

Registration: This event is free of charge, by invitation only. If you are interested in attending, please email us to request official invitation.

Accomodation: We have reserved a number of rooms at Waldorf Astoria in Berlin from 6 – 8 June  at a special rate. You will receive details with your official invitation.

Keynote speakers:

Simon Wilde, Senior Managing Director, Macquarie Capital, London - Simon has over 24 years of advisory experience in power, renewables and utilities at RBS, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse and Creditanstalt. He now manages Macquarie Capital's principal investment business in Europe, providing equity capital both to renewable and other energy projects. He is also a Visiting Lecturer and Research Fellow at Imperial College Business School's Centre for Climate Finance and Investment.

Bertrand Piccard, doctor, explorer, chairman and pilot of Solar Impulse - Bertrand Piccard, a medical doctor specialized in psychiatry, explorer and aeronaut, who made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, is also the initiator and chairman of Solar Impulse. In 2016, together with André Borschberg and their team, Solar Impulse accomplished  the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. Bertrand has become an influencial voice heard among the most distinguished institutions across the globe as a forward-thinking leader for progress and sustainability.

Gregory Blatt, Head of Marketing and Communications, Managing Director, Solar Impulse - As Head of Marketing and Communications at Solar Impulse, Gregory's role is to work with the Board of Directors in elaborating strategies in these domains, and coordinating the implementation and realization of these plans with the respective specialised teams. This gives him a privileged position to participate in a range of activities - media relations, multimedia, partnership, supporters program, merchandising and educational outreach - all of which are critical to the success of the project. Additionally, he works very closely in supporting the Chairman and the CEO in fund raising initiatives and global relationship management with key high-level constituencies. In the past Gregory held positions such as Managing Director, Marketing, Strategy and Communications of EDIPRESSE GROUP in Lausanne, Switzerland; Executive Vice President, Marketing and Business Development of Hubert Burda Media in Munich, Germany, and Director and Member of the Executive Board of the World Economic Forum. Geneva, Switzerland.

Other speakers (in alphabetical order):

Simon Anderson, Chief Strategy Officer, GEO - Simon Anderson formed geo 10 years ago along with Patrick Cagier-Smith with the intention of empowering consumers in the home energy sphere.  Patrick and Simon used to race yachts together where Patrick was the skipper and Simon was the navigator/tactician and they have carried these roles into our business. In these 10 years they have carried out a lot of practical consumer research as well as launched several consumer energy products.  They have supplied over 3m units, mainly to the UK market, but increasingly to other European markets, particularly Nordic and BENELUX countries.

Guy Auger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Greensolver - Guy is the Chairman of Greensolver, a company he founded in the Eolfi Group in 2008 and bought back in 2013. Greensolver is an independent technical consultant and operator of energy companies owned by third-parties. Guy has more than 10 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, covering development, financing and operations. His past experience has been gained in the management of international groups.

Sébastien Bertrand, Weather & Energy Solutions, Engie Global Markets - Sébastien currently leads ENGIE Global Market’s Weather and Energy business. The Weather desk was set up at the start of 2016 with a small team now responsible for the development of the Groups understanding of the effect of weather on its bottom line. The mandate of this desk is to understand, quantify and structure weather/price risk coverages and manage these risks through internal offsets or external trades. Prior to this current position, Sébastien worked for 10 years in a variety of roles in optimisation, structuring and origination within ENGIE. Sébastien holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Arts & Métiers Paris Tech and a post-graduate degree in Finance from ESCP Business School.

Dr. Thierry Bros, Senior Research Fellow, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies - Dr. Thierry Bros is a senior research fellow of The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, a member of the EU-Russia Gas Advisory Council and an advisor to the World Energy Council - Global Gas Centre. He is also a senior energy expert at Energy Delta Institute and a visiting professor at SciencesPo Paris. In 2016, he founded thierrybros.com to provide independent research, independent advice, training & expertise on energy markets after 25 years in the energy field, from the policy side to trading floors. Thierry Bros holds a Master of chemical engineering from ESPCI ParisTech and a PhD from Ecole Centrale Paris.

Stuart Brown, Head Origination Weather & Energy EMEA and APAC, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions - Stuart Brown currently leads Swiss Re’s origination activities in the Weather & Energy business for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. He has been with Swiss Re since 2001, prior to which he spent nearly 20 years at JP Morgan, based in New York, Tokyo, Paris and London in energy investment banking. At Swiss Re, he was with the capital markets team in structured corporate insurance before joining the weather and energy team in 2009. He serves on the board of the Weather Risk Management Association and Swiss Re Capital Markets Limited and is based in London.

Muammer Cider,  Origination Team Leader, Enerjisa - Muammer joined Enerjisa in 2016 and is responsible for structuring energy related deals of non-standard nature. Muammer has over 9 years of experience in energy trading; working for Nuon and Vattenfall in a variety of roles.

Stephen Doherty, CEO, Speedwell Weather & WeatherXchange - The weatherXchange® Platform helps companies buy index-based weather risk protection by providing access to free weather data, free structuring tools and free price comparison. weatherXchange also supports the post-trade process. weatherXchange Limited is part of the Speedwell Weather group of companies. With offices in the UK and the USA, Speedwell serves clients in sectors including weather-risk, insurance, energy and agriculture world-wide. Speedwell provides worldwide weather data, enterprise software for pricing and managing a portfolio of weather risk, and is the major provider of independent Settlement Services for index-based weather protection contracts.

Dr. Martin J. Fengler CEO & founder of  Meteomatics AG, St. Gallen, Switzerland - Martin studied at TU Kaiserslautern (Germany) where he received his PhD in applied mathematics. After his studies he developed several numerical weather prediction codes for Meteomedia AG (now MeteoGroup Switzerland) where he became responsible for the technology & innovation department. In spring 2012 he decided to found Meteomatics in St. Gallen. Meteomatics focuses primarily on the industrial demand of scalable, global as well as hyper-local & accurate weather APIs that provide any sort of historical, current and future weather data, e.g. for the energy sector, logistics & insurance business. To further improve the forecasts for fog and thunderstorms, Meteomatics has developed the proprietary Meteodrone system. With this drone system it is for the first time possible to screen the planetary boundary layer - the lowest 1.5km of the atmosphere, which provides much better initial data for numerical weather models. The success pays off: As the first Swiss privately held company, Meteomatics received a BVLOS & EVLOS approval for their drone systems from the Federal Office of Civil Aviation.

Dr. Konstantin Lenz, Country Manager Commodities Germany, Nasdaq - Konstantin Lenz is Country Manager Germany at NASDAQ Commodities and also Professor for energy economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt. He started his career in the liberalised energy markets at Electrabel. As head of the German analysis of the Norwegian Markedskraft group he built up the German operations and developed models and market analysis. Later on he took over the position of a director of portfolio management and trading at Kom-Solution. Afterwards he worked as independent consultant on different projects in the German power market focussing on long-term analysis, risk management and trading.

Jayesh Parmar, Partner, Energy & Resources, Baringa Partners - Jayesh is a Partner and leads Baringa’s Energy Advisory practice. Jayesh has more than 25 years of experience in the energy and utilities industries. He has successfully directed and delivered projects to design and implement strategic change and performance improvement for a number of the major players in these sectors. Jayesh has played a lead role in the development and implementation of competition and market mechanisms in both gas and electricity in the UK and a number of countries in Europe, and has worked with clients to optimise their operations and trading in these markets. His more recent projects have also focused on assisting clients develop and realise their business strategy, and design and implement business models. Jayesh’s key areas of expertise are competition and market reform, and in the design and delivery of business strategy.

Patrick Schneckenburger, Vice President Customer Solutions, E.ON - Patrick has been working for over 15 years in different roles in the energy business and in management consulting. In his current role as Vice President Customer Solutions at E.ON’s headquarters, he drives business performance through cross-regional collaboration, best practice work and capability building across E.ON’s customer business in eight European markets. Previously he worked in different business development and operational roles for EON in Sweden and in Germany. Patrick started his career with Management Consultant A.T. Kearney, following business administration studies in the US and Germany.

Mark Stephens Row, Sales Engineer, The Weather Company - Mark is a Meteorologist with a degree from Reading University. After leaving University, he spent 2.5 years in Antarctica as a weather observer with The British Antarctic Survey monitoring the atmosphere and working with the team that discovered The Ozone Hole in the mid 1980's. On his return after collaborating on scientific papers, he joined a Bristol based sales company as a technical seller supplying a variety of high tech meteorological instruments to universities, research institutions and for professional uses. In 1992 he joined what would become The Weather Company as a weather forecaster, initially providing forecasts, graphics and scripts to the ITV network in the UK before making the jump to On Screen Weather Presenter. The Weather Channel then beckoned for several years where Mark appeared as a forecaster until the late 1990's. He then worked as as technical sales and marketing support and later Sales and Account Manager across Media, Aviation and most recently Energy, Utilities and Insurance. The role also involved providing training in Weather Company products and services as well as the basics of weather and forecasting and he made numerous appearances as Weather Expert at global Energy and Insurance events. On acquisition by IBM in 2016, mark moved into a Sales Engineer role and now provides technical and meteorological expertise and support to IBM and legacy Weather Company sellers across a host of industry verticals including Travel and Transport, Insurance and Retail.

Jennifer Salmon, Senior Commodity Trader, Hudson Energy - With nearly a decade of experience in the energy industry, she began in the PPA market at Smartest Energy, working with independent renewable generators, before moving on to structure some of the largest retail tenders for EDF Energy and then moving to Dublin Ireland to set up the Renewable Certificate Trading Desk for ElectroRoute. Since moving back to London she now works for Hudson Energy looking at the European Expansion, Renewables and PPAs.

Uli Suedhoff, Renewables Business Development Leader, GE Renewables - Uli Schulze Südhoff currently leads the business development and the PPA team for GE Renewable Energy in EMEA. His academic and professional background is law, finance and strategy. Uli started his GE career with GE Capital in 2007, and moved into the wind business 2009 as Commercial Leader Services, responsible for the commercial Service business and Service P&L in Europe.

Dr. Juerg Trueb, Head of Environmental & Commodity Markets, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions - Juerg's team develops tailor-made weather and weather-contingent commodity price products which help protect energy and agricultural firms from adverse earnings caused by sales volume and commodity price risks. These solutions are available globally in the form of derivatives, insurance and reinsurance transactions. Prior to his current role Juerg set up and managed Swiss Re’s weather & power outage and emissions trading desks. He was also previously responsible for the global agricultural and atmospheric perils units at Swiss Re. During that time he developed risk assessment and pricing tools for European windstorms, tropical cyclones and methods to steer portfolios of natural catastrophe reinsurance contracts. Juerg holds a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master's degree in Environmental Sciences.