The end of Georgia gas deregulation process is proving to be notonly eventful, but also confusing for customers. On Tuesday (Aug.10), the day before the market share of the 20 gas suppliers was tobe determined, 77,000 gas customers in the state switched fromAtlanta Gas Light (AGL) to one of 20 marketers, for fear of beingplaced on a random assignment list, which actually won’t be made upuntil Monday.

“Apparently, many people had it in their minds that if theyhadn’t switched by Aug. 11, they would be put in a randomassignment pool. There were people calling at 1 a.m. trying toswitch suppliers,” said Bobby Baker, a Georgia Public ServiceCommissioner. “Unfortunately, there is still plenty of time toswitch without having your name put in the random assignment pool.”

The 77,000 people who switched was a one-day record for thestate, said Millicent Hunter, an AGL spokeswoman. The utility isbusy sifting through the new accounts, and will not have abreakdown of the results until it files with the Commission onFriday.

With 77,000 accounts changing hands on Tuesday, a projected350,000 people still have not switched gas suppliers from AGL. Oncemarket share has been defined, these left-over AGL customers willbe randomly assigned to one of the 20 marketers according to theirmarket share. Georgia Natural Gas Services, with 30% of the marketas of last Monday, has gained the most customers, followed by ScanaEnergy Marketing, with 27%.

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