Merchants

Liquidity-challenged energy merchants looking for ways to pay down debt may hear a knock at the door from Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group in the very near future — if it hasn’t happened already. Many of the best opportunities, especially the power plants, have fallen below book value in just a few weeks, and they offer an especially attractive buy, CEO Mayo Shattuck III told analysts during a conference call Wednesday.

Prices recorded gains at all points Thursday, with nearly all of them in double digits. Sources cited the previous afternoon’s run-up in energy futures as the chief price booster, since air conditioning demand remained on the relatively mild side for mid-summer in the key Midwest and Northeast market areas. Increases were remarkably consistent across the market spectrum; few were less than a dime, and a majority ranged between about a dime and a little more than 20 cents.

Prices recorded gains at all points Thursday, with nearly all of them in double digits. Sources cited the previous afternoon’s run-up in energy futures as the chief price booster, since air conditioning demand remained on the relatively mild side for mid-summer in the key Midwest and Northeast market areas. Increases were remarkably consistent across the market spectrum; few were less than a dime, and a majority ranged between about a dime and a little more than 20 cents.

As some of the big name energy merchants continue to divest themselves of energy service operations, smaller companies such as Richmond, VA-based Compass Energy Services Inc. and Framingham, MA-based Ameresco Inc. are filling in the niche by offering end users all-encompassing custom solutions for their energy needs. The trend is evident across the nation as companies like Duke Energy and Dominion Resources move away from some of their energy service business to focus more on their core competencies.

Relationships are still in the developmental stages between thenation’s largest natural gas distributor, Southern California GasCo., and a new set of fossil fuel electric generation plant ownerswho bought a dozen plants totaling more than 8,000 MW of capacityand billions of cubic feet of natural gas load earlier this year.