Marketer ECONnergy Energy lays claim to the title of fastest-growing retail natural gas marketer in National Fuel Gas (NFG) territory, moving into the number three slot among marketers in the western New York area after just three weeks of phone and door-to-door solicitations.

ECONnergy said it offers a variable rate plan with guaranteed savings for residential and small commercial customers. The company knows it has an uphill fight because some customers lost money last year when another marketer went out of business. ECONnergy is stressing in its marketing that customers pay after the fact for the natural gas they use.

Spokesman Jonathan Gewirtz said rather than guarantee a fixed price, the company guarantees savings over the utility rate. If ECONnergy’s rate is higher one month, it will make up the difference the following month. “The customer is interested in savings. If you give him a fixed price and then prices go down, he’s not going to be very happy. He wants to see savings.” Gewirtz said ECONnergy’s rates in other areas of New York state have typically been 8% to 12% lower than the utility rate. The Rockland County, NY-based marketer opened for business in 1997 and now serves about 150,000 customers in other utility areas, including Consolidated Edison, Niagara-Mohawk and Orange & Rockland.

The retail choice market in the National Fuel Gas area has declined since a marketer, Iroquois Energy, ceased operations last year, returning its customers to the utility, NFG spokeswoman Julie Coppola Cox confirmed. The number of participants has declined, dropping from a high of 71,000 to 48,648 today. All of NFN’s 500,000 customers are eligible to participate. Another marketer also dropped its residential customers last year, but continues to serve commercial customers.

NFN’s own retail marketer, National Fuel Resources (NFR), lays claim to about 33,000 customers. It currently is advertising a fixed price program, offering customers the opportunity to “Freeze Natural Gas Prices” and “Save up to 19% off last winter’s natural gas prices” by locking in their commodity cost of gas for two winters. Customers who sign up before Aug. 31, 2001 will pay $7.95/Mcf through April 2002 and $7.50/Mcf through March 2003. NFR said the price compares to an average paid by residential customers last winter of $9.26/Mcf .

Meanwhile, Gewirtz said ECONnergy has set up operations in New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio and is awaiting authorization in the District of Columbia. It is doing some retail electric marketing in Con Ed and Orange and Rockland territories and is “looking at several other areas.”

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