How Montel Risk helps traders price power load profiles

Who are you and what does your business do?

My name is Kathleen Günther, and I am Head of Power Trading at Stadtwerke Flensburg. I have been with the company since 2009, starting in the energy trading back office before moving through the middle office and eventually into the front office.

In the front office, we operate as a two-person team. We divide our core responsibilities but cover for each other as needed. This means that trading, portfolio management and day-to-day risk management are also part of my role.

Stadtwerke Flensburg operates a combined heat and power plant in Flensburg, supplying more than 90% of the city with district heating. By 2035, ten years ahead of the legal requirement, the company aims to fully decarbonise its district heating supply, subject to regulatory and economic conditions. The next step is the construction of a large-scale heat pump.

Nationwide, we supply both electricity and natural gas to private and commercial customers. Stadtwerke Flensburg trades in both the Scandinavian and German markets and is currently building up a renewable energy portfolio.

What challenges do you face in energy trading?

Market volatility is significantly higher than it used to be, while load profiles and generation patterns are becoming increasingly dynamic. Renewable energy in particular requires much more precise forecasting. This shift is also reflected in the market structure, for example in the transition of day-ahead auctions from hourly to quarter-hourly trading.

Our key challenge was pricing load profiles in a way that truly reflects their underlying structure. Using coarse assumptions or long-term average prices increases the risk of mispricing – especially when quarterly and hourly profiles differ substantially.

How does Montel Risk support your daily work today?

Montel Risk enables us to move from a coarse view of the market to a precise, quarter-hourly valuation. With quarter-hourly Price Forward Curves (PFCs), we can price power load profiles in much finer detail: quarter-hourly prices are matched with real load structures, rather than relying on flat annual or quarterly averages.

This is particularly important for sales calculations and for our production load profile. Ultimately, it is the combination of volume and price that determines the outcome – and that requires a curve that accurately reflects the structure of the portfolio.

We use Montel Online as a complementary tool, for example for live prices, charts and broader market context. However, the PFCs are the foundation for optimising pricing and managing risk.

Can you identify a situation where Montel Risk really made a difference?

The impact is most evident in day-to-day risk management and valuation. Quarter-hourly forecasts minimise potential structural shifts in pricing.

This allows us to reduce risk in our valuations by more accurately identifying which hours are expensive or cheap and how this affects the portfolio overall. As a result, our decisions are more robust, particularly in periods of high volatility.

What do you value most about working with Montel?

We value both the analytical quality of the curves and the reliability of their delivery. In addition, the support experience has been very positive: contacts are easily to reach, responses are fast, and data-related questions are handled in a solution-oriented way.

Overall, Montel Risk gives us the confidence to structure our valuations and hedging decisions on a quarter-hourly basis, enabling better control across portfolio management and trading.

With Montel Risk, we can price load profiles on a quarter-hourly basis, reduce price risk across the portfolio and support decisions that are closer to real market conditions. This is incredibly valuable in an environment characterised by high volatility and fluctuating generation.