We spoke with Jan Krišpín, CEO of ORGREZ and the spiritual father of the service, and Vojtěch Vavřička, director of the new company ORGREZ TRADE, about how to cope with this new reality and how the ORGREZ TRADE service can help operators produce more cheaply and trade profitably according to the market. The company provides professional trading, asset management, and smart online operations planning as a service—without investment, without risk, and with the certainty of an optimally managed modern energy system.
Why do companies need smart management and trading today?
Jan Krišpín: The EU's energy policy is clearly phasing out coal and replacing it with modern, flexible sources. This is the right direction, but it brings about a fundamental change: traditional cascade management is no longer sufficient. In the past, boilers ran steadily and the costs of heat production were relatively predictable. A weekly operating plan was sufficient. Today, energy prices fluctuate literally every hour, and without flexibility and smart operation, a modern system is expensive—and will find it harder to survive.
Vojtěch Vavřička: Exactly. Modern heating systems contain a combination of several technologies that must work together. KGJ, electric boilers, heat pumps, heat storage, batteries, photovoltaics... All of this must be coordinated with meteorological conditions and market signals. Optimizing production is a daily discipline, 365 days a year. And operators of small and medium-sized sources do not have professional trading or flexible asset management, so they often do not use the potential of their flexibility at all – this makes it very difficult to achieve a return on such investments.
What opportunities does the current environment offer?
Jan Krišpín: Today's market dynamics can be used to your advantage. Those who respond quickly to spot electricity prices, gas prices, weather conditions, or the activation of ancillary services can significantly reduce costs and earn more at the same time. Taking advantage of flexibility is a huge opportunity.
Vojtěch Vavřička: However, customers often lose out on this money. They don't have people to monitor the market, they don't know how to change their production plans on the fly, deal with SVR activations, or respond to malfunctions. Electricity imbalance can be a good servant, but it is a bad master. We solve these problems by providing them with trading and asset management as a service.
What exactly does the ORGREZ TRADE service include?
Vojtěch Vavřička: It is a comprehensive online service for operational planning and energy trading. We manage the heating plant as a whole, and our model connects consumption, production, and trade. We work with accurate market, operational, and meteorological data and use it to determine when each machine should operate optimally—every day. We provide spot price forecasts, plan the operation of cogeneration units, heat pumps, electric boilers, and storage facilities, trade gas and electricity, and respond immediately to market developments. We also provide SVR strategy, dispatch support, and complete asset management.
Jan Krišpín: Data optimization is key. The traditional operating logic was "the boiler runs according to consumption." The modern logic is "every day we decide again which mix of technologies is economically best." Decisions must be quick and automated. The service also ensures that even in the event of a boiler failure or unexpected activation of the SVR, the system continues to run economically correctly. The dispatcher takes care of safety, we take care of economics.
What makes ORGREZ TRADE unique compared to traditional traders?
Jan Krišpín: A typical trader buys or sells the curve that the customer wants—but does not optimize it. We, on the other hand, trade based on actual operations. Every day, we connect the market, production, consumption, outages, and technical limits of technology. Onboarding is very simple. That is the key difference.
Vojtěch Vavřička: And most importantly, small and medium-sized customers cannot afford their own professional trading. With us, they get what only the big players have had until now – an experienced team, trading, and asset management as a service. Affordable and without investment.
Who is the service intended for?
Vojtěch Vavřička: For industrial and municipal entities. Typically, these are district heating systems, municipal heating plants, regional operations, larger complexes, logistics halls, and corporate energy companies.
Jan Krišpín: And their needs are always the same: stable and acceptable prices, minimization of the impact of emission allowances, portfolio diversification, economically managed operations, utilization of the commercial potential of the source, alignment of SVR with the plan, high-quality predictions, and flexible trading. But they can't do it on their own.
What are the main advantages of the service?
Vojtěch Vavřička: I will summarize the answer with the main idea: "You will produce more cheaply and earn more." And that without investing in your own team or your own technologies.
Jan Krišpín: Another significant advantage of the new service will be the advanced nature and customer-friendliness of the software solution. ORGREZ TRADE is a joint project of the ORGREZ Group and the international IT group NITES Group, a leader in innovative customer experience solutions. By combining our know-how in the field of planning and optimization of energy operations with NITES' cutting-edge technological expertise in the creation of large-scale software systems, we are creating a robust, next-generation service.
How does implementation work?
Vojtěch Vavřička: It all starts with an analysis of the customer's operations. We evaluate the resource portfolio, propose an operating strategy, and evaluate it economically. The actual transition to the service takes only a few months. The ORGREZ TRADE system then naturally integrates into operations.
Jan Krišpín: And then everything runs day after day: The customer's dispatcher receives clear instructions and manages resources manually or automatically. Our trading dispatch monitors the market, optimizes, and sends daily plans and reports. The customer's management approves key steps in a simple dashboard and has an overview of savings and revenues. This cycle of smart operation ensures the economic stability of the entire system.
What does ORGREZ TRADE offer customers in the long term?
Jan Krišpín: Above all, stability. In an era of extremely volatile energy prices, this is a key advantage.
Vojtěch Vavřička: What's more, thanks to the comprehensive know-how of the ORGREZ group, we also help with asset optimization, reconstruction, and development planning. We are a unique "one-stop shop" for effective energy production management.
In conclusion: why should a customer choose ORGREZ TRADE?
Jan Krišpín: Because without professional trading and production management, it is impossible to achieve acceptable and stable heat prices and take advantage of commercial flexibility opportunities. And a flexible source without smart management is not an advantage, but a risk.