After marketing natural gas to Georgia customers for a littleless than a year, DukeSolutions, a unit of Duke Energy, has decidedto throw in the towel. The marketer which only has firm contractswith 16 customers on the Atlanta Gas Light system, filed a petitionwith the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) to cancel its”Certificate of Authority” to provide natural gas marketingservices in Georgia.

“What we are doing in Georgia in just representative of what weare doing all over the country,” said DukeSolutions spokesman RickWirth. “We are, for the most part not taking physical title tonatural gas or electricity anymore.” Instead he said, the companyplans on focusing on other energy services. “There is no state inthe country where we are taking physical title.” Wirth saidDukeSolutions is still a retail services provider, but will now befocusing on demand-side services, information services and themanagement of the procurement of natural gas and electricity.

In its filing, the company points out that its few customerswhose contracts expire at the end of November have been informedthat: DukeSolutions does not plan on renewing their contracts;DukeSolutions has filed with the GPSC for withdrawal of itscertificate and will not be marketing retail natural gas service ona “going-forward basis” in Georgia; and that they should seekalternative service providers within the state.

“Quite frankly, the energy markets did not mature at the pace wehad hoped for,” said Wirth. “So we sort of refocused. We have beendoing this [refocusing] for about the last year.”

Even though the filing expressed a pretty firm marketer exit byDukeSolutions from the troubled Georgia gas market, the companyincluded a back door policy. “DukeSolutions expressly reserves theright to apply at a later time for the issuance of a newCertificate of Authority and asks that its current certificate becanceled without prejudice,” DukeSolutions said in its filing.

“We still have quite a presence in Georgia, we have salesoffices in Atlanta,” said Wirth. “Georgia is still important to us,it’s just that natural gas and electricity in the physical arenot.” The spokesman said he does not anticipate any difficulty fromthe GPSC in canceling its certificate.

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