DCC Energy: Cleaner energy in your power
A customer-focused approach to the energy transition
The energy transition looks different for every organisation
For Dublin-based DCC Energy, a division of DCC PLC, the journey towards decarbonisation has provided the business with opportunities to support its customers and expand its presence across key markets.
More than three years into an ambitious transformation, the company has re-imagined itself for the green economy and is putting cleaner energy in the power of its customers.
With a bold, progressive vision for the future, it has set an ambition to halve emissions, including scope 3 emissions from its energy business, by 2030, while doubling profits.
For a company with ten million domestic, commercial and industrial customers globally, that’s a seismic shift and will mean carbon reduction on a huge scale. Since 2020, a team from Deloitte has been working with DCC Energy on the plan to achieve it.
At the heart of its plans and progress is the company’s clear philosophy: to become the best customer company in energy.
In practice, that means building a diverse range of low and no carbon energy sources to reduce carbon from its existing fossil fuels business, supporting customers to transition to cleaner energy in a way that meets each one’s needs.
No single renewable energy source can reliably meet today’s energy needs
For many companies and energy providers, making progress today demands adopting a practical, pragmatic approach.
Working together with its customers, DCC Energy is building solutions that balance the need for energy to be secure and affordable, as well as sustainable.
“Electrification offers an exciting option for our customers to reduce their carbon emissions in the short to medium term, particularly for our earlier commercial and industrial adopters,” says Rob Flanagan, DCC Energy’s head of business development and strategy.
“But for many of our customers, renewables aren’t as reliable today as they need them to be.”
For those customers, it’s about understanding how they are likely to transition and the most economical options available now. Immediate solutions include biofuels like hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and enabling those who still require fossil fuels to transition to the least carbon-intensive option of liquid gas.
“Many of our customers are in hard to abate industries, where the green hydrogen solutions that they require won’t be ready to scale for some time,” Rob continues.
“They will rely on our pragmatic approach to help them reduce emissions this decade through the use of biofuels and gases, alongside the introduction of solar and electricity-based combined heat and power solutions.”
The energy world is changing
Further momentum has been created by a targeted M&A strategy that’s re-shaping its business.
Acquisitions made since 2023 include a range of solar and energy management companies across Europe and DCC Energy has built a dedicated team that works with customers across Europe on their renewable needs.
A team from Deloitte collaborated with DCC Energy to support its launch, but our involvement in the company’s transformation began in 2020, in the planning stages of its wider strategy.
“When we began working together, the team knew what kind of transformation it wanted to make but needed to plot the strategy and roadmap to get there,” says James Forsyth, a director from Deloitte.
Specialists from Deloitte’s multi-disciplinary team combined Consulting and Financial Advisory expertise from Ireland, the UK, the US, Germany, France and Netherlands.
Integrating with the DCC team, they helped crystallize its strategy, identifying potential new products as well as those to exit from, and exploring new markets, geographies and customer segments.
From DCC Energy’s perspective, the cultural fit and integration of the Deloitte team has been central to the partnership’s success and bespoke approach.
“We never wanted somebody to give us a strategy,” says Rob. “We wanted a partner to work alongside us, as we created our own.
“The result is a vision and plan that DCC Energy’s people own and are fully committed to across the organisation.”
A purposeful transformation
While its 2030 target is over five years away, DCC Energy has already covered a lot of ground.
“Our strategy has been constant over the last few years but, over the past 24 months we have added capabilities to communicate our vision clearly, gain buy-in and accelerate against key objectives,” says Rob.
In that time, the company has cemented itself as a leader in European solar power and biofuels, with a strong presence in energy management services markets across Ireland, France, UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Norway.
More broadly, its acquisitions have opened access to a wider customer base and valuable expertise in future-facing energy technologies.
“This progress is impressive,” James continues, “but just as important is the purpose behind it and the team’s commitment to supporting customers to transition at the right pace.”
On track to deliver against its target, at the end of March 2024 DCC Energy reported 35% of profits coming from non-fossil sources. That share of services and renewables was only 22% as recently as two years ago.
“We hear it played back to us now in the sector, that DCC is becoming an energy transition company, focused on practical progress,” Rob concludes.
“It’s great to hear, as well as somewhat humbling.
