Columbia Gas of Virginia says the first year of its two-yearcustomer-choice program has captured high marks, with aboutone-fifth of its eligible customers in the northern part of thestate having signed up to participate in it so far. This is the”best endorsement for the [program’s] expansion” throughoutColumbia’s entire service territory, a company official said.

“I would say the pilot’s been very good so far. It’s shown thatour customers want a choice,” agreed David Bowman, manager ofprograms and implementation.

Following an eight-month enrollment program, Columbia estimatesthat 4,893 of its 26,500 eligible gas customers in northernVirginia have joined in the state’s first-ever supplier choiceprogram for either gas or electric. This is about 74% of Columbia’sgoal of 6,700 customers for the first year of the unbundling pilot,Anderson noted. “We don’t anticipate having any problems meetingthat goal” since the first year of the pilot doesn’t end untilOctober. “In the second year, as the word spreads throughout theneighborhood…we expect a lot more people to sign up,” Bowmansaid.

At some point in the future, Columbia said it expects to gobefore the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) and ask forthe customer-choice program to be expanded to include the entirestate.

Bowman believes that the five open-houses that Columbia held,where customers and suppliers met face-to-face rather than over thetelephone, contributed to the success of the program in its firstyear. “You can get a lot better feel for a person from looking themdead in the eye and asking them questions than you can [from] overthe telephone,” he told NGI . “We found the open-houses to be verysuccessful. That was just one way that we got the word out.”Average residential customers using 80 Mcf of natural gas annuallyhave seen savings as high as 8% by participating in the pilotprogram, Columbia said. And small business owners using 400 Mcfannually have saved up to 12%.

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