Two studies examine marketers and direct-access pilots. Customers seen as "confused," dissatisfied," "frustrated."
The Edison Electric Institute has released two studies that examine increased competition in electric markets. One looks at the rapid growth of the power marketing industry, while the other examines the problems encountered by the first six retail access pilot programs in the U.S.
Power Marketers. According to Power Marketers Yearbook 1996: Sales, Purchases and Profiles, independent power marketers in 1996 sold 230 million megawatt-hours of electricity (em a 776-percent increase compared with the 26.5 million MWh they sold in 1995. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has certified 288 power marketers, which is an increase of 131 marketers since 1995. A total of 320 exist. The top 10 marketers were responsible for more than 70 percent of total sales. Enron Power Marketing Inc., the largest of the 10, accounted for more than 25 percent of the total of such sales (58.6 MWh).
The study attributes the growth of power marketers to the 1996 birth of the electric futures market. Power marketers are the most active buyers and sellers of electric contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. These marketers accounted for 67 percent of futures traded for delivery at the California-Oregon Border and 85 percent of futures traded for the Palo Verde delivery point in Arizona.