Houston-based Dynegy Inc., setting itself up as possiblecompetition for its cross-town Houston marketer Enron, has launchedDynegydirect, a B2B trading site for energy and communicationscommodities, which will give customers self-service access to bidand offer prices across U.S. power, natural gas and natural gasliquids products. CEO Chuck Watson said the site would extend thecompany’s “global reach through customized electronic solutions.”

Dynegy has been quickly building up its Internet presence thisyear. In April, the energy marketer invested $25 million in a jointventure with Williams to obtain a minority stake in B2B developereSpeed Inc. (see Daily GPI, April28). Then, in September, Dynegy said it would become a partner inTradeSpark, developed by eSpeed, that offers commodity trading (seeDaily GPI, Sept. 26).

Dynegydirect will complement the TradeSpark partnership andoffer customers whatever they want and need, said Matt Schatzman,president of Dynegy’s energy trading unit.

“Dynegydirect will offer what you can now do on a telephone andnow do it on the Internet,” Schatzman said. “It will be moreefficient, and offer more information in real time.”

Whereas TradeSpark offers a neutral exchange and large standardblocks for trading, Dynegydirect will be more customized for Dynegycustomers, who will be able to pick and choose what they want,including what size trades they want to perform. There will be nominimum trade volume on Dynegydirect, Schatzman said. “This sitewill offer more of a focus to our direct customers, and offer morespecialization.”

Eventually, Schatzman said that Dynegy would like all of itscustomers to trade via the Internet. However, he said the companyhas not set any specific volume numbers on how much business itexpects to capture through its site. “We do expect the Internetbusiness to grow, but we will leave that to the customer.” He saidthe telephone broker services will continue as before, andcustomers who are more comfortable trading on the telephone cancontinue to do so as long as they want.

Similar to other energy B2B trading sites, the Dynegy model willoffer a trading “floor,” to allow customers to “get what they wantto get,” said Schatzman. The configurable floors will enablecustomers to group products in a customized way for easy access. Nolimit will be placed on the number of floors that may beestablished, and multiple floors can be tiled on the monitor forfull viewing.

In the near future, the site also will offer news and otherservices, which customers also may customize. Already, Dynegy hasbegun registering all of its existing customers, and by the end ofthe fourth quarter of 2000, expects to have all current customersregistered to trade via Dynegydirect.

Available now to U.S. customers, Dynegy plans to make the siteavailable globally in the coming months. The first expansion willbe into the United Kingdom, where power and natural gas, coal,emission allowances, weather derivatives, international natural gasliquids and bandwidth will be offered.

CEO Watson said that Dynegy’s “long-term strategy” would be toextend its global reach and “become a leader in the convergingenergy and communications economy.”

Schatzman said Dynegy’s newest venture “is designed to enhanceliquidity, improve customer control, create greater tradingefficiency and provide customers with choice. Customers are firmlyin control of every trade they execute through Dynegydirect.”

Dynegy customers and new users can preview the site, and alsoregister for trading at www.Dynegydirect.com. Schatzman said that it willtake about 10 days to complete the registration process and then thesite will go live.

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