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AES Enters Retail Gas and Electric Arenas
AES Corp., a major electric generation and distribution company,continued to shift its focus onto downstream operations by forminga new subsidiary, Power Direct, to compete for electricity andnatural gas retail customers in U.S. markets, the company saidyesterday. Power Direct is already licensed to sell electricity inNew Jersey and anticipates the receipt of a license in Pennsylvaniaby the end of August. The company plans to begin marketing in thosestates in the near future.
Power Direct’s main office will be in Arlington, VA, with anadditional office in Peoria, IL. It will employ several dozenpeople to start, “then grow from there,” said Christine Wood, aPower Direct vice president. Its gas operations will begin oncederegulation occurs in those two states. While its focus initiallywill be the Northeast, Wood said, “if the success rate is highenough, we plan on being a national energy marketer as more statesunbundle.”
AES said the new subsidiary’s principal focus will be on theresidential and small to mid-sized commercial energy users. PowerDirect will complement the business of New Energy, another AESaffiliate that sells electricity and energy services to largercommercial and industrial users.
“This creation of this new AES energy mass market business in theUnited States continues our recently demonstrated strategy to enterthe competitive retail energy business,” said Dennis W. Bakke, AES’CEO. “Our efforts with Power Direct, New Energy and CILCORP shouldgive us valuable insights into the retail energy business…” NewEnergy was formed when AES bought New Energy Ventures last June (seeDaily GPI, June 21). CILCORP, parent ofCentral Illinois Light Co. was bought by AES last year (see Daily GPI,Nov. 30).
“With Power Direct, AES is entering this very large segment ofthe U.S. market,” said Tom Tribone, executive vice president ofAES. “Power Direct will have an Internet focus as an important partof its strategy to provide consumers with a dramatically betterbuying experience.”
Based in Arlington, VA, AES is a global power company thatcurrently owns or has an interest in 105 power facilities totalingover 32,000 MW in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina,Brazil, Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, Pakistan, India,Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Hungary, Kazakhstan, China and theUnited Kingdom. AES also distributes electricity to nearly 14million customers throughout the U.S. and is a retail marketer ofheat and electricity.
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