Monday August 7 2006


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Politicians or no -- public
in Maryland uses noggin

Political wildness gives way to
common sense in market

Maryland politicians tried to win all the inches of press they could get out of impending rate hikes at Baltimore Gas & Electric.
What will Texas market look like when Jan 1 rolls around?

 Audio conference
Aug 25, 12 - 1:30

Imagine Texas with a real mass market!

Lawmakers put a provision in the law that as of Jan 1 price-to-beat will go away allowing prices to be set by market forces.

That means that Texas will be the only state with a truly free market.  Will this paradigm set an example for America?

Join Taff Tschamler of KEMA, Stream Energy's Alex Rodriguez, Glen Stancil of Reliant Energy and Robert Frank from Direct Energy to find out.

Click here for details and to register.         Meanwhile the public seemed to be doing what was in its own best interests by shopping.
        Some 28,522 Maryland customers signed with marketers in May -- more than half of them residential customers.
        Residential shoppers at BG&E jumped 2400% in May from a meager 34 customers at the end of April to 819 a month later.
        Seven marketers are seeking residential business, the PSC reported, as competitors smelled opportunity.
        Even a few residential customers at Allegheny Power left for competitors even though their rates remain frozen.
        Big rate hikes -- reflecting higher wholesale prices this winter -- kicked in at Pepco and Delmarva Power (Pepco Holdings).
        BG&E's infamous rate freeze ended as expected July 1.
        SB 1 -- emergency legislation passed in a special session of the Democrat-dominated Legislature and enacted despite a veto by Gov Robert Ehrlich, R -- temporarily capped at 15% the residential hike that would have initially been 72%.
        The cap appears as a credit on all residential customer bills and next year is to appear as a monthly charge on all bills.
        All customers meanwhile are seeing the full generation charge -- a 100+% hike over frozen rates.
        More than 10,000 new shoppers were small C&Is -- almost double the shoppers at the end of April.
        Small C&Is started migrating en masse in April when shopping jumped an astonishing 400% from 2.9% to 12.8% by the end of May.
        The politicians were debating how to rescue residential customers (voters) not business people.
        Shopping was hottest at BG&E where more than 15,000 new customers began taking service from marketers -- up from 1,415 at the end of April.
        But marketers scored huge gains throughout the state multiplying their share of customers by 1000% at Allegheny Power, 300% at Delmarva Power (Pepco Holdings) and nearly 200% at Pepco.
        A year ago, just 3.7% of small C&Is shopped. It jumped to 12.8% by the end of May.
        Nearly 4,000 medium C&Is signed with marketers in May - on top of the 5,000+ who made their move in April.
        Shoppers doubled in May.
        BG&E and Pepco customers shopped most vigorously.
        Marketers more than doubled their share of medium C&I customers at both utilities and boosted their share of demand served to almost 53%.
        They were serving 25% of medium C&I load in April.
        Marketers even gained new large C&I customer though four out of five were shopping by April and Allegheny customers still can buy power on fixed rates. (Click here to see table)
        Originally published in Restructuring Today on July 21, 2006

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Conference Links

What will Texas market look like when Jan 1 rolls around?
When: 08/25/06 , 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM CDT
Where: Your home, work or cell phone
http://www.restructuringtoday.com/conferences/texas.html

CEA Technologies Inc (CEATI) -- Issues in Power Quality
When: Sep 12, 2006 - Sep 13, 2006
Where: Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel
http://www.ceatech.ca/Meetings/PQ/Issues-Power-Quality.pdf

UPLC -- Broadband Power Line 2006
 When: Sep 17, 2006 - Sep 20, 2006
Where: Omni Charlotte Hotel -- Charlotte, NC
http://bplconference.org/

NET-ATHOME™ -- The world’s most international connected home event
When:  September 26 & 27, 2006
Where: Hilton Hotel -- Cannes, France
 www.net-athome.com/

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