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What happened to Maryland market when dust cleared?

Could the Maryland craziness
lead to positive results?

More than 14,000 electric customers began buying power in June from competitive retailers, PSC figures show.
The outlook
for demand response in
a high-price environment

Audio conference
Sept 22, 12 - 1:30 EST

Get insiders' perspectives on where the demand response industry is going and how industry leaders are taking advantage of volatile energy prices and record demand.

Join EnerNOC's Phil Giudice, ConsumerPowerline's Reena Russell, Comverge's Bud Vos and Dan Delurey from the Demand Response & Advanced Metering Coalition and the US Demand Response Coordinating Committee to learn more.

Click here for details         Marketers have made astonishing inroads since this summer's rate hikes were announced and lured lawmakers into silly debate.
        Shoppers doubled -- to 79,394 in June versus 39,205 in April -- while load served by marketers jumped to 35.4% from 26.6% two months earlier.
        Small C&Is buying from marketers rocketed to 32,389 from 5,815 two months earlier with marketers building their share of demand to 16% from 4%.
        Large C&Is shopping -- already healthy with many customers paying hourly rates -- jumped to 87% of customers, up from 81% in April.
        Rates at Pepco and Delmarva Power & Light (Pepco Holdings) jumped June 1 driving a stampede to the market by C&I customers that began in May.
        In just two months shoppers trebled to 1.2% and competitive load grew by half again to 23% at Delmarva Power.
        More customers in all but one rate class turned to the competitive market for savings.
        Small C&I shopping jumped to more than 2,000 or 6.5%.
        Medium C&I shopping more than doubled to 48% over two months.
        Marketers were serving 58% of Delmarva's medium C&I load -- up from 22% in April.
        Even residential customers began shopping.
        Only large C&I shopping remained stable but marketers are serving more than 90% of them.
        Shopping at Pepco in the Washington suburbs jumped too with small and medium C&I shopping more than doubling and large C&I shoppers growing by almost three percentage points in two months.
        Pepco and Delmarva bills jumped more than 30% in June though customers could opt into a rate stabilization plan that deferred some distribution costs.
        The plan was structured to be competitively neutral as customers saw the full impact of the generation rate hike on their bills.
        Few customers -- 2% at Pepco and 1% at Delmarva Power -- chose the deferral plan, Pepco reported (RT, 8/8).
What's ahead from EPACT: one year later?

 Audio conference
Sept 26, 10:30 - 12:00 EDT

Restructuring Today has assembled leading experts to talk about (and answer your specific questions on) the most massive rearranging of energy law in modern times:

• Thomas Kuhn, president, Edison Electric Institute

• William Massey, the former FERC commissioner

• Ed Zaelke is a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

• Susan Kelly, general counsel, American Public Power Assn

Click here for details and to register.         Besides higher rates, the big change in Pepco territories is the jump in marketers making offers.
        Seven marketers are serving Delmarva residential customers -- up from three a year ago.
        C&I marketers jumped to 17 -- from nine a year ago -- at Delmarva and 19 at Pepco -- up from 14.
        Baltimore Gas & Electric saw the biggest gains -- not surprising considering its huge rate jump was the big story this spring.
        Its generation rates more than doubled last month -- a 72% bill hike -- as the utility ended its long small-customer rate freeze.
        The rate hike touched off political pandemonium and a nightmare for Constellation Energy whose intended merger with FPL Energy became a hostage to gubernatorial hopefuls and lawmakers facing voters this fall.
        Another casualty was the PSC whose members were fired as lawmakers came back to Annapolis to enact an emergency bill passed despite a veto by Gov Robert Ehrlich, R.
        PSC members have kept their seats while its chairman pursues an appeal (RT, 7/10).
        The bill -- SB 1 -- mandated a rate stabilization plan for all residential customers they'll be paying for over the next 10 years (RT, 6/16).
        Fortunately, lawmakers didn't monkey with the fundamentals of the plan. It's competitively neutral like Delmarva and Pepco's plans.
        That's allowed eight marketers to jump in and offer real rate relief to residential customers led by Washington Gas Energy Services.
        More than 7,000 BG&E residential customers did the smart thing in the two months leading up to the hike.
        They shopped.
        So did small C&I customers.
        Shoppers swelled to 21,747 in June, up from 1,415 in April.
        Marketers were serving 20% of them in June.
        Medium C&I shoppers jumped too -- growing to more than half of BG&E's customers and up from 27% two months before.
        Large C&I shoppers leaped by almost six percentage points over the two months.
        Allegheny Power residential rates are frozen through 2008 but C&Is are paying rates based on RFPs for competitive power so they're shopping too.
        Almost 1,100 of Allegheny's small C&I customers have shopped since April when just 61 accounts were signed with marketers.
        Medium C&I shopping exploded -- rising to 39% of accounts from 21% two months earlier. Large C&Is jumped too -- growing to 72% of accounts from 63% in just two months.
        Nothing in the above story can be interpreted to mean we favor using Maryland as a model. (Click here to see table)
        Originally published in Restructuring Today on August 18, 2006

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Conference Links


The outlook for demand response in a high-price environment
When: 09/22/06 , 12:00 PM - 1:30 EDT
Where: Your home, work or cell phone
www.restructuringtoday.com/conferences/demand.html

What's ahead from EPACT -- one year later?
When: 09/22/06 , 10:30 AM- 12:00 EDT
Where: Your home, work or cell phone
www.restructuringtoday.com/conferences/demand.html

CEA Technologies Inc (CEATI) -- Issues in Power Quality
When: Sep 12, 2006 - Sep 13, 2006
Where: Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel
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/

IQPC's International Powerline Communications 2006
 When:  October 23 - 26, 2006
Where: Renaissance Penta Vienna Hotel Austria
http://www.iqpc.co.uk/GB-2790/BPLT

Copyright 2006, ghi, llc.  All rights reserved.

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