The SPi Group Inc.

The SPi Group Inc. (SPi)

Headquartered in Toronto, The SPi Group Inc. (SPi) provides operations, services and solutions for clients in competitive energy markets. With 70 energy sector clients, the company combines expert support, software development and consulting teams with extensive expertise in the energy industry. Active since the early planning stages of the province's competitive electricity market, SPi continues to assist market participants in the implementation of new initiatives such as Ontarios Smart Meter Initiative (SMI). SPi is the leading clearinghouse service provider in Ontario, processing 100% of the provinces retail market data, which includes over one million meter points. SPis system is one the largest of its kind in the world by volume.

Company Details

Year Established: 2002

Number of Employees: 35

Company Information

Gary Michor
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Area of Responsibility: Domestic Sales & Marketing, Export Sales & Marketing, Management Executive, Government Relations
Telephone: (416) 408-1395
Fax: (416) 408-1396

Services

Custom Software Development

System Integration The SPi Groups IT projects have included numerous system integration efforts, bringing disparate elements such as CRM, CIS and back-office systems together to provide a consistent set of applications and data reporting mechanisms. We have integration expertise with over 21 different CIS systems, as well as considerable experience in bringing together the Microsoft and Java worlds. Our integration expertise allows clients to realize the full benefits and advantages of open standards, bringing new efficiencies in the back office, streamlining value chains by allowing trading partners of all sizes to talk to each other, and allowing management to gain greater business visibility and operational control.

Market Operations SPi guides market design and the development of data exchange standards in Ontario and across North America. SPi played a key role in the opening of the Ontario electricity market to competition, steering over 70 market participants through the pre-market opening design and testing phase. Since the start of operations and the opening of the market, SPi's data clearinghouse service has met or exceeded all regulatory requirements and service level agreements with its customers for performance and availability. Today our systems handle 100% of retail market data, including enrolment, usage, meter, settlement, and invoice transactions, for almost one million consumers in Ontario. Our EBTx clearinghouse service processes millions of XML transactions monthly, and boasts 99.98% up-time over the last yearmaking it one of the worlds largest systems of its kind by volume and one of the most reliable.

Energy Conservation Services Current and future conservation initiatives outlined by the province of Ontario will require organizations to reduce their energy consumption. However, a comprehensive view of consumption data can be difficult to obtain. SPi is investing in research and development to make electricity consumption information more readily available to organizations. SPis conservation services combined with our technical expertise, will help organizations do their part to create a conservation culture in Ontario. Consumption Information Collection Service: This service empowers property managers and head office personnel with the consumption information they need to understand how their businesses use electricity, allowing them to better manage their electricity costs. Conservation Readiness Plan: Focusing on the people, IT systems, infrastructure and operational processes needed to manage smart meter data, this plan will help organizations assess and align their business with the core objectives of the Smart Metering Initiative (SMI) and other corporate or provincial conservation initiatives.

Managed Services The SPi Groups managed services portfolio allows energy retailers and distributors to focus their IT resources on core functions and business initiatives, while SPi manages and maintains their back-office market solutions and supporting infrastructure. By choosing our managed services, clients save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on deployment and maintenance of internal systems needed to compete in the Ontario energy market. SPi offers a full range of IT systems and solutions developed for the Ontario market including communications between distributors and retailers, as well as back-office and market operations services. Managed Service for Retail Operations: SPis retail operations managed service allows retailers to enter the Ontario market more quickly, and save the time and resources required to understand and adapt to Ontarios complex market standards.

Billing And Settlement The SPi Groups comprehensive suite of billing and settlement solutions and services is designed to help companies reduce the time and effort required to resolve billing and settlement issues. General Billing and Settlement System (GBASS): Designed to allow energy companies to enter new markets quickly and efficiently, GBASS uses a market model concept which defines a common method for managing customer enrolment, billing and settlement information, independent of the data formats and communication methods unique to each utility and market. The common market model concept allows GBASS to be extended to support multiple concurrent markets and commodities. The solution employs leading-edge Web-Services technology based on open standards including SOAP and XML. The GBASS solution is currently operating in three US market jurisdictions: the NICOR gas market in Illinois, Peoples Energy, based in Chicago, and North Shore Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Peoples Energy. Customer Billing and Settlement System (CBASS): This advanced billing and settlement engine, designed specifically for the Ontario retail electricity market, captures and processes all information flowing between a market participant and its trading partners, ensuring that all transactions adhere to specified business rules. The modular architecture allows individual components to be reused in many ways to ensure maximum flexibility in accommodating current and future requirements. The CBASS system is one of the most widely used by electricity retailers in the province.