Price

The heat wave and attendant electric and gas price spikes ofearly May have lit a fire under federal legislators, who may haveto answer to consumers this summer and constituents this fall as towhy the nation’s partially deregulated power industry isn’tworking.

This week’s climb in the cash market slowed down Wednesday, butwatch out for the fireworks that are virtually a certainty today.

The slippage in April swing prices that had begun mildlyWednesday gained more momentum Thursday as quotes fell by about anickel or more almost across the board except in California, led bydrops of about 15 cents at some Northeast citygates. May bidweekprices also softened, but only by a couple of pennies or so in mostcases, sources said.

Price spikes, volatility, tight margins and stiff competitionhave prompted many energy marketers to reconsider their positionsand strategy, and this is causing changes in the energy marketingarena as a whole, according to a new report by Frost &Sullivan.

Increases of more than a nickel dominated the cash marketyesterday as strong demand and chilly weather in core populationareas mixed with a surging futures screen to produce bullishresults. While many traders were surprised to see prices at theircurrent levels, they also agreed that this bull run does not appearlikely to go away any time soon.

PowerSpring.com, a newly-formed marketer-technology partnership,is rolling out a B2B website aimed at bringing price transparencyto citygates across the country, to tap the next level ofcost-conscious customers, commercial end users, according to JohnHarpole, PowerSpring executive vice president.

Price spikes, volatility, tight margins and stiff competitionhave prompted many energy marketers to reconsider their positionsand strategy, and this is causing changes in the energy marketingarena as a whole, according to a new report by Frost &Sullivan.

“It figures, we got some winter weather after the winter wasover.” That was a Northeast gas buyer’s lament after a weekendblast of snow and cold sent regional citygates as high as the$3.60s (Transco Zone 6-NYC) Monday and had some Gulf Coast pointsedging over $3.

PowerSpring.com, a newly-formed marketer-technology partnership,is rolling out a B2B website aimed at bringing price transparencyto citygates across the country, to tap the next level ofcost-conscious customers, commercial end users, according to JohnHarpole, PowerSpring executive vice president.