Secure Approval from Internal Decision-Makers

Now that you have done your research and built a strong case for a new form of energy procurement for your organization, you must obtain internal alignment from key stakeholders and decision-makers. While you may have been in close communication with key stakeholders and decision-makers throughout your procurement planning, you must ensure there is universal buy-in in order for to execute your procurement.

Main Points

Given what you now know, you can present a compelling case for renewable procurement to internal decision-makers.
Before moving forward with executing your procurement, you must ensure that internal resources are committed to contributing to the process.

First, See This

Certain stakeholders within your company will be important in the procurement process in terms of providing support and/or approval. These stakeholders can come from a wide range of company divisions.

Seeking approval to proceed with a procurement option is more than a procedural task – it is important that the decision-makers understand the commitments implicated with the preferred option. It may be important for leadership to help designate roles for key contributors for the procurement process.

Securing internal approvals

The process of putting a corporate PPA in place can involve many different functions within a company, including:

Procurement teams;
Operations and supply chain management;
Facilities and energy management teams;
Corporate social responsibility and environmental management teams;
Marketing and communications;
Finance and / or treasury functions;
Legal teams;
Board of Directors.

Proactive and clear communication of the benefits of corporate PPAs involving all relevant functions is key. For example, whilst the procurement team may be familiar with the advantages of PPAs, operation personnel may have concerns about the extent to which existing power supply arrangements might be impacted and technical difficulties in integrating a corporate PPA. Section 4.10 discusses how such concerns can be addressed by taking examples from the heavy industry sector.

In aggregate, securing internal approvals from all relevant stakeholders is
essential to avoid delays. Techniques that can help to succeed include:

Mapping relevant departments and / or managers which will be required to sign off on key aspects of a corporate PPA (such as price, tenor, accounting);
Designing an integrated approval process so that issues are raised and decided upon in a single process with all relevant stakeholders involved;
Holding workshops early in the process which include representatives from corporate buyers that have experience of PPAs in order to internally promote understanding.

It should be noted that shorter-term PPAs may require fewer internal approvals than longer term PPAs.

Read: Chapter 4.4 from Corporate Power Purchase Agreements: Scaling Up Globally by WBCSD.

Now, Review This

You are well prepared to present a compelling case to your internal decision-makers to procure renewable energy. The case you make to leadership must be backed up by a comprehensive procurement plan with several key components. This will deliver confidence to stakeholders.

Read Excerpt: pages 7-12 from Guide to Purchasing Green Power by the U.S. EPA.

A loose outline for the procurement plan would likely include roles, background market research, KPIs, and more.

The procurement plan will define roles and steps, and ensure that the process is fair, robust and defensible. It may include information about:

purpose
key deliverables
key performance indicators
budget information
roles and responsibilities
engagement with experts
contract requirements
market assessment
procurement strategy
probity and tender evaluation strategies
procurement schedule
risk assessment.

Read Excerpt: page 45 from Renewable Energy Procurement by the City of Melbourne and Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance.

Suggested Actions & Next Steps

Finalize: Augment and polish the memo you have been working on. Then circulate or present it to the stakeholders you identified in Section 3.5 to obtain approval to proceed with your plan.
Enlist support: Revisit the list of necessary capabilities that you made in Section 3.5. Ensure that these internal or outsourced personnel are committed and have bandwidth to work with you throughout the long procurement process.