On Thursday 17 February EDI organized a simulation game for young professionals active in the energy sector together with NAM and PWC. The objective of the game was to create the highest net present value for a hypothetically chosen maturing gas field. The game was divided in three rounds in which each of the groups had to choose a strategy and an option to support their strategy. The groups were given a detailed information pack describing the possible strategies and options for each round.
Around 70 young energy professionals from different organisations and backgrounds were divided in 10 teams. Immediately after the start of the first of three rounds, the group members started fierce discussions about which strategy to follow. It was fascinating to see the interaction and strong debates between group members. This coincides very well with the objective of EDI to organize specific events for young energy professionals: to give young people a platform to exchange views on developments in the energy sector and provide the possibility to build a network in this challenging and fascinating industry.
After each round the accumulated present value per group so far was projected on a big screen so each group knew what their ranking was. This made people very competitive. After three rounds the final results were presented and there was a glorious winner.
We had the opportunity to ask some questions to the members of the winning team.
How did you like the simulation game and what did you learn from it?
"The simulation game was a great experience for me. It gave me valuable insights in the uncertainties the energy sector faces and how energy companies have to deal with it. The impact of each decision has such a huge impact on the companies’ results and future strategy. Very useful!"
Hanneke Verhelst, Fleishman Hillard
"Not being within the scope of work I am familiar with, it was interesting to learn which factors you have to take in to consideration, when creating a long-term strategy for your business. I learned the importance of investment when creating a strategy for longer-term. This is a risk you can decide to take, but in the end you may benefit from it. Being the one who takes the initiative and invests to the future, will have an advantage and take the lead in the market at a later stage. Our group took this initiative and it paid off, but this way we could’ve also ended up losing big - market changes were on our side."
Timo Martelius, Tebodin Netherlands
"The simulation game was a nice way to meet new people, and immediately get to know them by working together in a time-pressed situation; time was flying by. I learned from the game that there are several economically viable long-term strategies for the exploitation of mature gas fields; CCS and gas storage are promising applications of these fields and could provide profitable business models for Dutch gas fields in the future."
Sikko Zoer, Ecofys Netherlands
"The simulation game was both very useful as entertaining. Determining a strategy as a team on such a short term is certainly a challenge, but I guess we did well."
Karel van der Lingen, GasTerra
Why, in your opinion, was your team’s strategy the winning strategy?
"I believe we won because we were all convinced that we should stick to our initial strategy and bet fully on that. It was a bit risky, but as such we were able to reap the benefits of our start-up investments in round 2 and 3. And of course the unknown external effect of “the Ukraine gas incident” gave our profits a strong boost. I guess a bit of luck is also needed for true success!"
Hanneke Verhelst, Fleishman Hillard
"Our team chose a bold gas storage strategy from the start, based on common sense and a rapid analysis of the figures. We aimed for high revenues on the long term and our focus on one activity and own hardware investments paid off in the end."
Sikko Zoer, Ecofys Netherlands
"We saw a business opportunity in the nice summer-winter spread for the gas-storage scenario. We decided to invest strongly and to hold on to our strategy to the last round. It probably was a bold move and we needed all three rounds to reap the benefits of our investment, but in the end the strategy succeeded."
Karel van der Lingen, GasTerra
The winning team (as well as the other teams) did a great job and we hope that they will come back in a future event to defend their title!
