• FEATURE STORY:  Meter that allows smallest to respond to price movement

• New Jersey tries to figure perfect price for medium use folk

• Scott Helm's customers sometimes get negative prices

New Jersey tries to figure perfect
price for medium use folk

It's so hard to get the price just right for those of the C&I buyers who use 1,000-1,250 kw.
     The Board of Public Utilities wants to expose more large customers to realistic prices but without exposing them to too much price volatility (RT, 5/12).
     There's the trick.
     Utilities have filed their plans.
     The higher volume is the cut-off point for hourly pricing rather than flat rates.

Scott Helm's customers sometimes
get negative prices

He runs AmericanPowerNet from Wyomissing, Pa, a firm that links large buyers with large sellers -- at retail and at wholesale.
     We reported how the wholesale approach works (RT, 2/18).
     One customer, he explained, got just two offers from retailers but at wholesale won 28 offers from eight wholesalers.
     We tried to zero in on the difference between retail and wholesale suppliers.
     A retail firm sells power to consumers who use the power themselves. A wholesale marketer is one that may sell in PJM, NEPOOL or MISO markets to those who don't use the power themselves.

First Choice Power is ready
to rip in Fort Worth

First it was sold by TNP Enterprises (Texas-New Mexico Power) to PNM Resources and it hired a marketing team of respected quality.
     Jeff Shorter has been named president of First Choice Power and senior vice president for PNM Resources, the utility holding company in Albuquerque.
     Shorter's job is to grow the customer base in Texas.
     TNP got $1 billion (see www.pnmresources.com).
     PNM gained 219,000 customers in Texas with 163,000 as price-to-beat customers of TNP plus 56,000 picked up after the Texas market opened or about 3% of the Texas competitive market.

Goldman Sachs, Hearst &
Google pony-up for BPL

Berkman family brings big-name connections but it's not an IPO

Current Communications Group -- calling itself the nation’s leading integrated BPL service provider -- announced the good news.
     The firm plans to use $100 million to expand its BPL business in the US and abroad having seen “tremendous interest” from utilities in Europe and South America and from municipals and co-ops in the US, Current’s Vice President of Corporate Development Kevin Kushman told us.
     The days of utilities “kicking the tires” and doing BPL technology trials are fast evolving into serious interest at many utilities, said Kushman, and Current is in serious talks with 20 or more big ones.
     He predicts announcements from at least two by year’s end.

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