YASNO: What Customers Need to Know About Purchasing Electricity

Tetiana Lisena, deputy head of SmartTender's VIP customer support department, spoke with Yevhen Bushma, director of sales and customer service at YASNO, and found out what actions will help customers make electricity purchases as quickly and profitably as possible.

Tell us about your company

YASNO is a brand under which a group of companies works that supply electricity and gas, help customers reduce energy costs through energy-efficient solutions, and develop a network of charging stations for electric cars. We supply electricity to 3.5 million household customers in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk regions, as well as more than 80,000 legal customers throughout Ukraine. YASNO companies (LLC "Kyiv Energy Services", LLC "Dnipro Energy Services", LLC "Donetsk Energy Services") three times topped the rating of electricity suppliers of Ukraine compiled by the analytical center DiXi Group. About 6,500 customers of the B2G segment throughout Ukraine chose us as their electricity supplier, and the total volume of supply to them amounted to about 34.5 billion kWh during the entire period of activity of our companies.

Even during martial law in Ukraine, we continue to work actively and stably. During this period, YASNO supply companies concluded 720 contracts with 559 customers for 105.5 million kWh.

What advice would you give to first-time electricity buyers before the 2023 buying campaign begins?

We advise you to use the possibilities of the procurement process provided by law during the period of martial law: to purchase electricity in the Prozorro Market catalog (both by direct orders and by request for price offers) and minimize qualification requirements in a competitive procurement. This will shorten the procurement period and reduce the operational resource for document preparation.

What should be taken into account in open bidding procedures with specifics when forming the expected purchase price?

Pay attention to the indices of inflation and consumer prices in the country in 2022, as well as the seasonal trend of changes in market prices for electricity. For example, according to the data of the market operator, the weighted average electricity prices may increase by 10-15% during the period that corresponds to the minimum terms for the submission of offers.

When forming the expected cost, take into account the new possibility of submitting offers with prices higher than those determined by the customer by the corresponding percentage. If such a procurement tool raises questions, use the usual auction algorithm. However, include such a percentage in the final cost, because otherwise, the cost of the product becomes unprofitable for the supplier on the final date of submission of offers. This provokes the situation of the absence of participants in the auctions, and as a result – their cancellation, but with the subsequent possibility of concluding a direct contract. We emphasize that the conclusion of direct contracts on this basis is possible only on “unprofitable" conditions, which were defined in the documentation.

What should we pay attention to when concluding a contract during the period of martial law in the country?

For all procurement procedures announced after 19.10.2022, the regulation of price fluctuations in contracts is slightly changed. From now on, there is no restriction on the possibility of changing the price by only up to 10%, which greatly simplifies the maintenance of the contract from both sides during its validity. At the same time, it became possible to define the main components of the electricity price as tariffs. The new tool makes pricing for the customer as transparent and accurate as possible because it simplifies the formula for calculating fluctuations and eliminates the error in their rounding.

Tying the prices in the contract to the weighted average prices on the market "a day ahead" makes procurement even more open to the state and society in terms of integration with the source of open data. Customers can also use the usual "proportional" price fluctuation system.

How do you rate working with the SmartTender platform?

We can highly appreciate the site's functionality, individual approach, and high-quality legal assistance.

SmartTender specialists have prepared for us a personal individual report on the publication of new purchases, which immediately automatically analyzes the previous purchases of the customer and concluded contracts of competitors with the indication of additional agreements. It also analyzes whether it is indicated in the tender documentation that the procurement is carried out with or without distribution, concerning the relevant part of the tender documentation in a separate column, shows restrictions on price changes, requirements for securing the contract, and providing ISO certificates, restrictions on the possibility of terminating the contract, requirements for the presence of customer service centers in the region. This report greatly simplifies and speeds up our work, and also helps to avoid errors related to the human factor.

Also, on the site, we often use Competitor Analytics, which allows us to quickly (by pressing one button) get information about any of our competitors.

YASNO: What Customers Need to Know About Purchasing Electricity

Thanks to Customer Analytics, we can immediately analyze the customer's previous similar purchases and see the main competitors, which helps to better prepare for the purchase and take into account all the data.

YASNO: What Customers Need to Know About Purchasing Electricity

The site also has a convenient function of signing each file with a QES without a limit on the size of the file. And we don't need to first print the document, sign it, then scan it, and split the scanned file into smaller ones. We simply upload the file and sign the documents with the click of a button. This is how we save time at each tender when submitting proposals.

YASNO: What Customers Need to Know About Purchasing Electricity

If a manager submits a proposal but does not sign it, it is saved as a draft. So the files don't disappear, and to sign such a draft, we use a filter and quickly find the procurement for which this proposal was submitted.

YASNO: What Customers Need to Know About Purchasing Electricity

Transparency should be the main principle of every company in the country. That is why procurement in the form of "Open tenders with special features" and "Prozorro Market" acquire priority importance because it is thanks to them that competitiveness and transparency are preserved during the procurement process.

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Tatiana Lisena, deputy head of SmartTender's VIP customer support department: how to start purchasing or selling electricity on SmartTender

You can conveniently and quickly select current purchases on the SmartTender.biz site on the search page or create your unique selection of tenders. Site specialists will always help you with this.

If you want to become a customer or supplier of electricity or other energy resources, complete a short registration on SmartTender. After that, our manager will contact you and advise you on the next steps.

If you have any questions, contact our support service by phone: 0 800 75 10 10.