• FEATURE STORY:  Phil Tonge will build Direct brand in Texas marketplace

• Gas market hiatus leads to $10.73/mmbtu at NYMEX

• ELCON's Anderson: Capacity markets aren't markets

Gas market hiatus leads to
$10.73/mmbtu at NYMEX

The worst seems to have passed with Hurricane Katrina, writes Jackson Mueller [jwmueller@attglobal.net].
     Trading had been halted at NYMEX then trading started up at $10.73/mmbtu for September contracts in part because light crude oil was trading at $66.60/barrel and that works out to $10.74/mmbtu, for October.
     NYMEX called the trading interruption a force majeure. It was the last day of trading for September.
     Light crude for October at NYMEX rose $2.12 to $68.25/barrel ($11/mmbtu) ...

ELCON's Anderson: Capacity
markets aren't markets

John Anderson, ELCON's president, has to laugh when he hears people calling capacity pricing mechanisms like ISO New England's locational installed capacity (LICAP) or PJM Interconnection's reliability pricing model (RPM) "market-based" solutions.
     "They're constructs of regulators who draw demand curves and price schedules based on their guesses about the future," he mused.
     In a market suppliers and buyers get together to meet each other's needs, Anderson noted.
     Too many of today's organized markets are out of control, Anderson warned, as the New York ISO, ISO New England and PJM have gone forward with capacity markets over strenuous consumer opposition ...

Reliant going after Hispanics
via song in English

Reliant Energy is stepping up its pitch to Hispanic customers with a new TV and radio campaign.
     The IOU is teaming with its Hispanic advertising agency of record, Lopez Negrete Communications, in a campaign that is the industry's first to feature English-language music in ads targeting Spanish-speaking customers.
     The ads are set to the 1967 English-language number one hit song Happy Together and feature popular Reliant ad personality Beto.
     But the campaign continues to use the slogan Confia en Tu Buena Energia (trust in your good energy), created in 2002.
     The spots highlight Reliant's dedication to customer satisfaction and loyalty but the TV version doesn't have dialogue. Radio spots do ...

Cadence Network poised to
gain from high utility prices

Demand rising for service to cut C&I bills
     We've been writing about Cadence since it was created in 1997 by three utilities intent on finding a new niche in opening competitive markets.
     The three intended to help C&I buyers get good prices and accurate billing (RT, 9/9, 9/10/97).
     Recent rising gas and power prices have created growing opportunity for Cadence Network that calls itself the "leading utility, lease and telecom expense management firm ...

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