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The November wholesale exchange contract was higher by $0.024 on Friday, settling at $3.645 on the day. The colder than normal weather forecasts continue to come in the Northeast and this week’s EIA storage injection are starting at mid 70’s for the week ending October 21st. The winter rally that we have all been waiting for seems like it’s having a hard time getting started this year in the face of overwhelming supply on line and projections of continuing growth in supply as well. In the International arena, the financial markets are fairly quiet this A.M. as European leaders wait until Wednesday to continue to finalize a bank recapitalization plan and according to the parties involved, a package in excess of $100 billions is on the table.
In the largest mass mailing to hit the Post office in a while, Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed) and Pennsylvania Electric (Penelec), are currently mailing more than one million letters to their residential and small commercial customers encouraging them to shop for their electric generation supplier. The letters contain information to help educate consumers about how they can shop for the best prices on electric generation. Currently 10 electric generation suppliers serve the Met-Ed territory and eight offer electricity in the Penelec territory. While the amount of electricity a customer uses ultimately determines their monthly bill, saving on generation can help customers reduce their overall monthly bill. In addition, many suppliers offer fixed prices for fixed-length terms. The price to compare, or PTC, for Met-Ed and Penelec customers changes four times per year - March, June, September, and December. The quarterly price changes are intended to minimize large price swings in the electric generation market. Met-Ed serves approximately 560,000 customers in 13 Pennsylvania counties, while Penelec serves approximately 600,000 customers in 31 Pennsylvania counties.
In the state of Connecticut, it’s ranking as eighth in a national energy efficiency policy group's Top 10 is nothing new, but a state official said this week improvement is the goal. This week, the nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy billed Connecticut the eighth most progressive state. Tied with Minnesota, Connecticut has made cost-saving and efficiency-producing initiatives a priority, the report states. The group ranked the state of Massachusetts first for the first time, supplanting California, which remained in second place. The council's scorecard examined all 50 states for utility and public benefits programs and policies, transportation, building code compliance, state government initiatives, combined heat and power and appliance efficiency standards. The report ranked Connecticut 11th for spending $126.9 million on electricity efficiency programs last year. Other achievements in Connecticut during the past year include loan programs, sales tax exemptions for energy efficient products, and a new law that sets energy efficiency compliance standards for TVs, DVD players, compact audio players and recorders. That law goes into effect in January of 2014. In 2006, Connecticut was tied for first place, and has been consistently in the top 10.
In the State of Washington, Avista Energy is preparing one of the one of the largest package mailings in Inland Northwest history, the delivery of 300,000 kits containing compact fluorescent light bulbs to Avista Utilities customers. Each weekday, about 5,400 packages leave the warehouse in a U.S. Postal Service truck. The kits of eight bulbs arrive on doorsteps within a day or two. Avista is sending the energy-efficient bulbs to residential and small business electric customers throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Most Spokane customers already have theirs, with deliveries now targeting rural areas. When the effort wraps up in mid-November, 2.4 million CFL bulbs will have been delivered. Spokane-based Avista is promoting the bulbs for a reason: The utility is facing state mandates to get more of its energy from renewable sources. Electricity saved through energy-efficiency measures counts toward that goal, said Sandra Hoye, program manager for the utility's CFL project. CFLs consume about 75 percent less electricity than incandescent light bulbs. As lighting accounts for about 15 percent of home electricity use, switching to CFLs makes a real difference, she said. But mailing 300,000 packages of fragile light bulbs posed logistical challenges. Avista started meeting with the U.S. Postal Service and Mailstream six months ago to plan the rollout. The resulting collaboration has been so successful that other regions of the Postal Service are interested in adapting it for their own use.
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