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May 29, 2020
CTRM Case Study, CTRM Managed Services, Events, Managed Services, Webinars

The Client

TransAlta owns, operates and develops a diverse fleet of electrical power generation assets in Canada, the United States, and Australia with a focus on long-term shareholder value. The company provides municipalities, medium and large industries, businesses, and utility customers with clean, affordable, energy efficient and reliable power. TransAlta is one of Canada’s largest producers of wind power and Alberta’s largest producer of hydroelectric power.

Key Results

  • Overcame operational challenges to keep trading smoothly.
  • Met critical deadlines without any disruption to business.
  • Gained reliable connections to physical and derivative markets.
  • Benefited from full transparency and control over trade data.
  • Uncovered and implemented additional operational efficiencies within weeks.
  • Freed technical staff to focus on driving business, not putting out operational fires.

The Challenge

Like many large and dynamic firms, TransAlta’s trading business in commodities is undergoing rapid change. As a large organization, they had made many custom changes to their trading systems that slowed their ability to meet internal project goals. Yet, as their business strategy evolved to increase trading in financial derivatives markets, so did their needs.

TransAlta hit a roadblock when ICE announced breaking changes to the ICE Trade Capture API. TransAlta learned that they would have to make technical changes on a short timeframe to maintain trade data automation in this key derivatives market.

To make the required technical changes, TransAlta would be forced to redo many of their customizations. With the deadline to complete these technical changes just weeks away, this was simply too disruptive and risky.


TransAlta began to search for third-party operational support in order to:

  • Get 24/7 monitoring for their trading systems.
  • Meet the deadline for technical changes.
  • Gain time to evaluate the best options for their business.

The Solution

TransAlta was already successfully relying on BroadPeak’s K3 solution for other exchange data feeds related to compliance. They sought to additionally leverage K3 to automatically retrieve all necessary derivatives trade data and prevent disruption to their business.

day-to-day operational support
For day-to-day operational support, TransAlta selected Value Creed for unmatched expertise in outsourced trading platform management. Since Value Creed already had a strong relationship with BroadPeak, working together was seamless.
implement for increased efficiencies
Value Creed led the implementation of K3 to replace the existing vendor’s trade feeds within a month. During the process, the collaborative team uncovered additional operational improvements to implement for increased fficiencies.
key to a successful delivery
Organizational factors from TransAlta were also key to a successful delivery: A well-organized IT group who can execute under time constraints, executive sponsorship, and technical folks with the ability to solve unexpected issues and reduce friction throughout the effort.

The Result

TransAlta met the key ICE Trade Capture API deadline without making risky changes or otherwise disrupting business. And with Value Creed managing their software platform, they are no longer battling day-to-day operational issues.

 

Thanks to their expanded implementation of K3 and outsourced software support, they are now able to:

  • Get 24/7 monitoring for their trading systems.
  • Meet the deadline for technical changes.
  • Gain time to evaluate the best options for their business.
We had an incredibly short period to make these changes so we could maintain automation of our trade data feeds. Interrupting business operations was not an option. Luckily, BroadPeak and Value Creed met our deadline. Their commitment to our project was impressive.
Chris Koch
Risk Systems Specialist, TransAlta
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