CEO Power Forum: Deryk King, Chairman and CEO of Centrica North America
How have the events in California over the past two years and Enron's bankruptcy affected your growth strategy in the United States?
I think both of those events are widely connected with deregulation, but in fact, have completely different origins. California was a failure of supply and demand, of demand just outstripping supply, a failure that was exacerbated by poor deregulation laws. Enron, well, who knows what caused Enron, but there was clearly mismanagement of the company. What we're seeing is inevitably in some states there has been a renewed caution with respect to deregulation and the emergence of competition. In a very few states, there has been a reversal of deregulation or at least a slowdown or stoppage. But in the states which are key to our future aspirations, we're still seeing a firm commitment by state government and the regulatory authorities to the emergence of competition.
Is your strategy to focus on a few key states in the U.S. and the market centers in Canada?
That's exactly it. In Canada, we're strong and very focused in Ontario and we'll be looking to western Canada when those markets open up. In the United States, we're heavily involved in Texas and Georgia, the two most heavily deregulated states in the union. We're very active in the Great Lakes region and in Northeastern markets as those open up to competition. We have between six and eight absolutely key focal points. That's where most of our efforts and resources are deployed.
What is your reaction to Pat Wood's comments at the Howard Weil conference in April that Enron's bankruptcy may actually help to speed up the deregulation of power markets?