More than mega-marketers will survive new energy markets

✍ Scribed by Blount, Joseph A.

• Book ID: 102844162
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Weight: 636 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0743-5665
• DOI: 10.1002/gas.3410140403

✦ Synopsis

J that only "giant" companies would be able to meet the needs of new consumer markets being shaped by the deregulation of electricity. With deregulation, firms of all kinds can sell natural gas and power.

This phenomenon, known as the convergence of natural gas and electric markets, took hold gradually after Congress relaxed longstanding restrictions on wholesale power transactions in 1992. Any company holding a federal certificate could trade wholesale power at unregulated prices. The ranks of certificated "power marketers" rose from only 6 in 1992 to 288 at year-end 1996 (Exhibit 1). The trend got further impetus as California and a dozen other states forged ahead toward allowing retail customers to shop for better prices on electricity, opening utilities to competition for all types of customers for the first time.

. . . something funny happened on the way to deregulation this year.