Green Mountain Energy has completed its largest-ever energyaggregation contract – picking up more than 400,000 Ohioelectricity customers in a six-year agreement with Northeast OhioPublic Energy Council (NOPEC), a public electricity buying group.Green Mountain will provide natural gas and renewable wind andsolar energy to households in eight Ohio counties.

The Austin, TX-based company now has a customer base of 500,000households in five states: Connecticut, California, Pennsylvania,New Jersey and Ohio, with plans to enter the Texas market when itspilot deregulation program begins in June.

Under terms of the contract, Green Mountain will begin servingresidential customers across the NOPEC area beginning Sept. 1. Theelectricity will be generated from natural gas, as well asrenewable wind and solar energy. Green Mountain stated that itsproduct blend would emit 1/3 less carbon dioxide, 2/3 less nitrousoxide, no sulfur dioxide and no mercury.

“This historic agreement highlights the growing consumer demandfor cleaner energy choices at competitive prices,” said GreenMountain CEO Dennis Kelly.

Green Mountain also plans to develop new renewable generationfacilities in the state, including constructing Ohio’s largest windfarm and solar arrays, to generate energy for NOPEC customers. Itsaid it would work with its investors and strategic partners, BPSolar and Nuon, a European energy supplier, to developcommercial-scale solar power and wind facilities.

Its initial target is a wind facility with a capacity up to 10MW, but Kelly said the company also plans to support thedevelopment of at least 100 kW of new solar capacity in Ohio. Notonly would the facilities be Ohio’s largest, but over theirestimated useful lives, Kelly said, new facilities would displacenearly 500,000 tons of CO2, 5,000 tons of SO2 and 2,000 tons ofN2O.

Currently, Green Mountain is performing a detailed feasibilitystudy to determine where to place the facilities, but said that ifa suitable site is not available in Ohio, it might consider anadjacent state.

Under the NOPEC contract, Green Mountain will offer Ohiocustomers a Power Perks customer rewards program, which wouldenable customers to earn discounts and offers from localeducational and corporate institutions. Membership would beautomatic for Green Mountain customers, with no fee to participate.The company also is working with BP to provide a natural gasoffering at competitive prices to NOPEC customers if suchaggregation programs are permitted under legislation now beingconsidered by the Ohio Legislature. Nuon also is supporting theinitiative.

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