Energinet: Saving €6+ Million by Prioritizing Projects
Energinet, Denmark’s state-owned electricity and gas operator, struggled with too many “top priority” IT projects and wasted investments. By using TransparentChoice’s prioritization software, the company built a transparent, structured process that aligned strategy with delivery and saved over €6 million.
The Challenge
Energinet manages a critical infrastructure — delivering electricity and gas to over five million customers across Denmark. In 2013, the company turned its attention to its portfolio of IT projects. Out of 80 projects, 60 had been tagged as “top priority.” With so many projects competing for limited resources, the IT team found it nearly impossible to focus effectively.
The lack of prioritization had real consequences. Projects were started without clear alignment to corporate strategy, leading to wasted investment. In fact, around one third of projects were obsolete before they were even finished, representing losses of roughly €20 million. Decision-making relied on project sponsors “pitching” their ideas to executives. While this process created the appearance of structure, it was highly subjective and prone to bias.
Energinet recognized the need for a better approach. They required a process that would cut through bias, ensure alignment to strategy, and give both executives and project managers a shared picture of what truly mattered.
"When 60 projects have top priority, you can say there is no priority."
"Moreover, around one third of projects were obsolete before they were even finished. With a combined investment of around €20 million, this was a significant problem"
Our Approach
Energinet adopted TransparentChoice’s project prioritization software to bring rigor and transparency to portfolio decisions. The first step was to capture the company’s strategic goals and translate them into a set of weighted criteria. This meant that every project could be assessed consistently against what the business had already agreed was most important.
The new process gave the PMO the ability to:
- Quickly and consistently evaluate incoming projects.
- Rank initiatives in terms of overall value delivered to the organization.
- Present clear, data-driven “value for money” comparisons to executives.
- Build optimal portfolios and make the results transparent to delivery teams.
Executives and project managers worked together through a structured, collaborative process. The software provided a shared framework that eliminated guesswork and bias, creating confidence that decisions were based on what mattered most to the business.
The Results
The impact was immediate and substantial. For the first time, Energinet’s executive team and project managers shared a clear understanding of strategic goals and priorities. This alignment enabled better project selection and stronger buy-in across the organization.
By eliminating 30% of obsolete projects, Energinet freed up significant resources and saved more than €6 million. Projects that lacked relevance to corporate priorities were quickly de-prioritized, while valuable initiatives received the focus they deserved.
The result is a portfolio process that is faster, more transparent, and more effective. Energinet now has the confidence that its IT investments are strategically aligned and delivering tangible value.
"Over a number of executive meetings, we used the collaborative decision making tools in TransparentChoice to really understand what our goals were across the company. We can now automate the process for nominating projects and know that we’re collecting the data we need to make a good decision."
" Better projects are selected up-front and regular reviews of the portfolio ensure that any project whose relevance to corporate priorities fails is quickly de-prioritized, saving money and freeing resources to focus on adding real value"
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