Reliant Energy, formerly Houston Industries, expanded itsMidwest retail gas marketing business with the acquisition ofcertain assets of National Energy Management LLC and Koch MidstreamServices Co.’s Chicago operation. Together, these retail marketingbusinesses serve more than 2,200 accounts in the Chicago andsouthern Wisconsin areas and have annual revenues exceeding $65million.

“These acquisitions provide Reliant Energy with key sales andoperating capabilities in one of the largest retail gas markets inthe U.S.,” said Rollie Bohall, senior vice president of ReliantEnergy’s commercial and industrial markets. “They fit with ReliantEnergy’s strategy of growing its mid-market retail business in theupper Midwest and strengthen our position as one of the leadingretail marketers in the Illinois region.”

Reliant has been selling unregulated natural gas in the regionsince 1994, primarily in Wisconsin and Minnesota with a fewaccounts in the Illinois area, said Gregg Hollenberg, Reliantdirector of market strategy. The acquisition announced yesterdayexpands the company’s presence in heavily industrialized Chicago.Hollenberg declined to disclose the gas volumes marketed by theacquired businesses. Customers are retailers, apartment buildingsand small industrials. “They’re not the large industrials, andthey’re not the small, mom and pop strip center kind of stores. Itreally represents a large cross section of industries andcustomers, but it’s one with significant volumes.”

Reliant Energy last week announced the acquisition of certainassets owned by Com/Energy Marketing Inc. that added 2,000 accountsin Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut (see Daily GPI Feb.25, 1999). “We’ve been active in this region for about two yearsnow and this was an opportunity to expand with a company that had acomplementary fit,” Steve Husband, vice president for ReliantEnergy Retail Marketing, said at the time. “In terms of marketshare, this increases [our commercial portfolio] about five times.If we’re talking about total market share, it increases it by about10%.”

Geographic areas where Reliant is active in unregulated retailmarketing include the upper Midwest, upper Atlantic region, andGeorgia.

National Energy Management is a joint venture of PanCanadianEnergy Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PanCanadianPetroleum Ltd., and two subsidiaries of Madison Gas and Electric.Koch Midstream Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of KochIndustries Inc., owns and operates gas pipelines and processingplants.

In another, unrelated retail market expansion last week,AmerenEnergy said it is entering the retail gas market in easternMissouri and southern Illinois. The company, a unit of St. Louis,MO-based Ameren Corp., said it will provide gas-related servicesand products to commercial and industrial customers, includingbrokering services for gas transportation as well as riskmanagement. Ameren Corp. has two utility subsidiaries, AmerenUE andAmerenCIPS, and serves 1.5 million electric customers and 300,000gas customers in Missouri and Illinois.

Joe Fisher, Houston

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