The biggest challenge was harmonising the processes and system landscapes used in both companies. For each existing process, the future target process had to be defined.
To determine the future IT landscape, all IT systems and interfaces in the existing system landscapes had to be
evaluated. On this basis, the necessary adjustments to the IT systems were defined and communicated to the
service providers. In parallel, the migration path for the existing process data and the cut-over planning for the
start date of 1 October 2021 were developed.
All of this was done in sub-projects. In between, regular coordination meetings were held to keep the common
goal in sight. Due to the pandemic, most of the reconciliation events had to be held remotely.
Sopra Steria accompanied the merger as project partner. The technology company was already working with both market
area managers before the project began - as the provider of
the cpX.Energy solution, which was used in both houses.
With the existing process expertise as well as the technology know-how in dealing with highly available systems and large
data volumes, Sopra Steria developed proposals for the seamless
transition. The cpX.Energy software was extended to meet
the new requirements of Trading Hub Europe, and existing
processes were merged.
The data was moved in two steps:
1. Migration of the data of the first company. After that, the
starting signal for the new Trading Hub Europe system was
given one month before 1 October 2021, and the processes of
the first former market area were handled.
2. This was followed by the takeover of the second company,
so that in October the move was completed and the Trading
Hub Europe system was launched throughout the market
area. Sopra Steria will continue to support the new market area
manager in handling time-critical allocation processes, balancing,
billing of balancing groups, grid accounts and balancing
energy. In addition, the display and input of process
data is enabled via the Trading Hub Europe customer portal.
How we worked together
The merging of systems, processes and data took place as an agile project. This gave everyone involved thepossibility to continuously adjust the solution as required over the long course of the project. Necessary adjustments
could be kept well in view with this project setting and the team size could be scaled on short notice. By working in
several sub-project teams, it was possible to work on different task areas in parallel.
Sopra Steria was familiar with the people and work of the two market area managers through the cpX.Energy collaboration.
This benefited the project teams. Even though the pandemic measures made direct contact impossible for
much of the project, collaboration and communication worked well.
Results and benefits
The Trading Hub Europe market area started on timeon 1 October 2021 well ahead of the German Federal
Network Agency‘s target date of 1 April 2022.
All legacy data could be processed smoothly on the
new cpX.Energy system of Trading Hub Europe in the newly
defined processes. During the migration of data from
two existing cpX.Energy systems, the source systems continued
to operate. The transition was thus seamless for
the German gas market without any interruptions.
Since then, the market processes of the market areamanager for the entire German gas market have
been handled on a daily basis on the new uniform
balancing system of Trading Hub Europe, resulting in
significant synergies in grid operations.
The decisive factors for our good cooperation were constant open exchange, discussions about specialist processes and assessments within the project teams to take the right path. The balancing and billing processes for the entire German market area work smoothly.
Stephan Alaerds, Program & Project Management, Trading Hub Europe GmbH