Renewable energy has been likened to organic foods, which, while being harder to market because of their premium prices, have gained popularity as more people become increasingly conscious about their health and the health of the planet. Just as consumers often want to know where their food comes from, they increasingly want to specify the source of their energy.
SmartestEnergy Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marubeni established in 2000, is a British electricity aggregator and supplier focusing on renewable energy. Having expanded into new markets and territories across the globe with the establishment of operations in the United States and the Asia-Pacific region in the last 6 years, it is committed to helping businesses worldwide in navigating the energy transition towards Net Zero. With a fully integrated business model, SmartestEnergy’s portfolio spans the entire energy value chain; purchasing energy from independent renewable generators (upstream), selling a range of energy products to business consumers (downstream), and trading energy and renewable certificates in wholesale markets (midstream). The company is also currently providing energy solutions to Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), a development seen in the industry as a game changer; enabling power to be produced, stored, and sold later when market conditions are optimal.
SmartestEnergy stands as the third largest Commercial and Industrial (C&I) business supplier by volume and ranks among the top three traders of renewable certificates in the UK. It was the first UK energy company to offer a certified 100 percent renewable electricity supply product, providing business consumers with the confidence to report zero carbon emissions for purchased electricity, sourced from renewable resources, such as hydro, solar and wind.
In 2024, SmartestEnergy launched a new innovative product, which gives its customers even greater transparency. The Traceable Renewable Supply product provides the highest standard of proof about where the electricity comes from. Customers receive a breakdown of their energy consumption at half-hourly granularity, in which they can trace how it is matched against the energy produced by specified generators contracted under Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with SmartestEnergy.
“Twenty years ago, business consumers in the UK and in other markets around the world didn’t care where the power came from as long as it was low cost,” says Robert Groves, who joined SmartestEnergy in 2004 and is now CEO. “But there is a global trend that business consumers are becoming more selective about where the power comes from. They position their business with their green branding, with their renewable credentials.”
Information technology is fundamental to SmartestEnergy’s business, which has become increasingly data driven. The company invests about 10 to 15 percent of its annual gross profit in new IT, on top of maintaining its existing IT platforms. Its IT function in the UK employs about 120 people, equivalent to one quarter of its entire UK staff base, underscoring the critical role technology plays in its operations.
“Data, information, and insight are really the heart of our business model because we don’t own any generation assets,” says Rob Pringle, SmartestEnergy’s CTO. He explains that SmartestEnergy offtakes power from its customers’ generation assets and maximizes their revenue, while serving business consumers who want a long-term reliable supply of renewable power, which can be intermittent in nature, at the most competitive price. All these operations require complex and extensive data analysis. Pringle adds, “Our focus around technology is how we get the most value out of the assets that we have within our organization: the people who operate our business model.”
Data analysis is also essential for SmartestEnergy in terms of effectively managing risks as a trading organization in a market that is complex and volatile. “It’s crucial for our business to have a very clear knowledge about the volume that we need to supply and the volume that we need to purchase,” says Beth Reid, VP of Strategy and Business Development. For example, when a customer wants a three-year contract for purchasing power, SmartestEnergy needs to be able to model the prices over that period, based on what the customer thinks their future energy consumption is going to look like. “We have the tools and the talents to make sure that we, and more importantly our customers, are safeguarded from dramatic adjustments in the marketplace,” Reid says. She adds that the backing of Marubeni, a Fortune 500 global company, is a critical component that gives SmartestEnergy the stability and credibility that it needs to do its business.
Among the other secrets to SmartestEnergy’s success is its asset-light strategy, which allows the company to respond with agility and flexibility to the emerging needs and trends of the ever-changing energy marketplace. “Formerly, being renewable itself was value added, a situation which is now diminishing as renewable energy is becoming more popular in many parts of the world,” says Suguru Tsuzaki, who is seconded from Marubeni and is currently serving as COO at SmartestEnergy. “We foresee a future where traceability will become the norm. Switching to renewables is a megatrend, which will remain unchanged. We are confident that our market opportunity will continue to expand.”
Kiln Fields is a solar farm located in Hampshire, generating 18 megawatts of electricity at its peak, enough to power approximately 7,000 households. Construction was completed in 2024 and the site was energised in early 2025, with SmartestEnergy signing a PPA with Blackfinch Energy in February 2025, providing a route to market for their power. Blackfinch Energy, is an investment specialist with multiple solar and wind projects in its portfolio, of which SmartestEnergy has provided PPAs for 20 assets, including Kiln Fields. “Contracting with SmartestEnergy means that we are going to get a fixed price for the energy that we export for the next one to three years, which gives us a lot of confidence over our financial planning,” says Stefan Agopsowicz, Head of Energy at Blackfinch Energy.
For SmartestEnergy, contracting with independent generators, like Blackfinch Energy, means securing a pool of long-term, low-risk supplies of renewable energy while providing traceability for business consumers. This ensures that they can be confident that their power comes from a high-quality local source. “We provide a route to market for independent generators and give them access to wholesale market revenues for their power,” says Angus Widdowson, Head of Generation Sales and Structuring at SmartestEnergy.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to help businesses navigate the energy transition because they are all at different phases in their journey to Net Zero. Some have a well-developed strategy and roadmap, while others don’t know where to start. Some businesses prefer tailored, more complex products, while others want very simple, packaged solutions. “That’s where we need to have a range of solutions, which cater toward all of these needs,” says James Graham, VP of Sales and Commercial at SmartestEnergy. “We provide customers with choices and empower them to make the right kind of decisions around renewable energy.”
SmartestEnergy has gone global, first into the United States in 2019, then into Australia in 2020, with the same business model that has been successful in the UK. “We can replicate our business model, which is a platform business. We can cookie-cutter it and deploy it in every regional market, which is broadly the same,” CEO Groves says.
The company also started trading on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) for German power and gas in 2024, and established a 50:50 joint venture in 2025 with Marubeni Power Retail Co., Ltd. (MPR), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marubeni. The brand-new company, Marubeni Power Trading Co. Ltd., is going to leverage these combined capabilities: MPR’s customer base in Japan and SmartestEnergy’s expertise in power trading. Groves says that SmartestEnergy plans to expand its business to new geographical areas. He adds, “Looking ahead into the next three to five years, we would expect 50 percent of our future earnings to come from our overseas entities and overseas markets.”
Marubeni’s support continues to be instrumental in growing SmartestEnergy’s existing businesses and broadening its international presence. “SmartestEnergy leads this business as an energy expert, and Marubeni lends its financial strength and global network,” COO Tsuzaki says. “I think that we will be able to finally declare success when we become able to provide decarbonization solutions in most parts of the world.”
