Consultancy
How does a click contract work for a business?
A click contract is an energy supply contract whose price is not set at signature. The company fixes its price in several steps, tranche by tranche, at the forward market conditions observed at the moment it clicks. The contract is signed first, the price is built afterwards.
That is the main difference with a conventional fixed price, where the entire volume is locked in one go, on a single date, at that day’s market conditions.
What actually happens when a company clicks?
Clicking means fixing the price of part of your future consumption. The company signs a supply contract covering one or more delivery years, then decides, period by period, how much of its volume it secures and when.
Each fixing applies to a specific market product: a calendar year, a quarter or a month of delivery. Depending on the contract, it is expressed as a percentage of volume or in MW blocks. The mechanism applies to electricity and gas alike.
Once clicked, a tranche is settled. Its price no longer moves, whatever the market does next. Each click fixes part of the volume at a given price, and successive clicks gradually build the average energy price of the contract.
Why would a company fix its price in stages?
Because a fixed price makes several years of budget depend on one market day. If that day falls on a peak, the company carries it for the whole duration of the contract.
Fixing in stages spreads the purchase over time. The company is no longer exposed to a single market point: it builds an average price across several levels. That is a risk trade-off, not a promise of a low price.
The downside is just as real. As long as part of the volume is unfixed, that part stays exposed to increases. A click contract therefore calls for decisions, at chosen moments, and for someone following the market in between.
Fixed price, click contract, variable price: what changes?
| When the price is set | Market exposure | What it asks of the company | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed price | Once, at signature | None afterwards, but total on the day itself | Choose the signature date |
| Click contract | In tranches, during the term | Decreases as volume is fixed | Decide the pace of fixings and follow the market |
| Variable or indexed price | Never: the price tracks an index, period by period | Permanent, for the whole term | Absorb the variation in the budget |
None of these three structures is inherently superior. They suit different consumption profiles, risk appetites and budget horizons.
How do you set a hedging strategy?
A click contract gives flexibility. What you do with it is a separate question. Three points are decided before the first fixing.
How much of the volume to cover? A company that has to hold its budget to within a percent covers a larger share, and earlier, than one able to absorb a swing in its margins.
Over what period? Covering the current year does not call for the same pace as covering three delivery years. The longer the horizon, the wider the fixings are spread.
How much risk stays deliberately open, and until when? Unfixed volume is exposed volume. Deciding that in advance beats discovering it at the deadline.
The point is not to guess the bottom of the market: nobody knows it in advance. The point is to have a decision framework, with written thresholds, an agreed pace and an answer settled ahead of time to the question “what do we do if the market rises 15%?”. Without that framework, every fixing turns back into a bet made under time pressure.
What a click contract does not do
This is the part sales presentations most often leave out.
It does not guarantee a lower price. A staged fixing strategy can end up above a fixed price signed at the right moment. Nobody knows the low point in advance, and no monitoring tool provides it.
It does not remove risk, it structures it. Market risk is spread across several dates instead of one. It is not cancelled.
It does not run itself. A click contract without decisions is a click contract that submits to its deadline. Most contracts specify what happens to volume left unfixed at the cut-off date, and that clause rarely favours the company that stopped paying attention.
It does not replace reading the terms. Three points deserve checking before signing: how long fixings remain possible, the minimum size of a tranche, and what becomes of any volume still open at the deadline.
Which companies should look at this structure?
A click contract assumes two things: a volume large enough for the supplier to offer the structure, and an organisation able to decide on time.
On volume, the usual threshold is 250 MWh of annual consumption per contract, all supply points (EAN) combined. Below that, the structure is rarely offered.
Above the threshold, the profiles best suited to it have an energy budget heavy enough that a few percentage points shift an investment decision, a need for budget visibility across several financial years, and the capacity to steer their cover regularly, not only at renewal. Conversely, a company whose energy bill stays marginal among its costs will rarely find a return proportionate to the attention this type of contract demands.
At Flexy, this monitoring falls under consultancy, a service separate from brokerage and invoiced to the client under a mandate. In practice: we follow the market, we show the company where it stands on its cover, and we quantify the effect an additional fixing would have on its average price and on its budget. The decision stays with the company: nothing is executed without its validation. The monitoring draws on our market data and on the YEM platform, through which we support click contracts.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides when to click?
The company. Our analysts follow the market, flag movements and simulate the effect of each scenario on the budget, but the pace and level of cover remain the client’s decision. Nothing is fixed without their agreement.
What happens if the whole volume is not fixed by the deadline?
That depends on the contract, and it is worth checking before signing. Depending on the case, the volume left open is fixed automatically at the conditions of the moment, or switches to an indexed price. The two outcomes have very different budget consequences.
What volume does a click contract require?
In practice, from 250 MWh of annual consumption per contract, all supply points (EAN) combined. The threshold applies to the contract, not to each site: several small supply points grouped together can reach it.
Do click contracts only apply to electricity?
No. The mechanism applies to gas as well. A company can steer both supplies in parallel, with a different fixing pace for each.
Can you click across several delivery years?
Yes, where the contract allows it. Fixings then apply to separate products, by calendar year, by quarter or by month. Each product is handled on its own, which lets a company cover a near-term year without locking the ones behind it.
Is a click contract more expensive than a fixed price?
The contract itself carries no automatic extra cost. What decides the final outcome is the level at which the tranches were fixed. Managing those fixings can be the subject of a separately invoiced consultancy, which the company is free to take or not.