EnergyWindow to Hold Collective Natural Gas Purchasing Event

With gas prices set for further rises, solution provider issues call to participate in "hybrid" purchasing model in August

With gas prices set for further rises, solution provider issues call to participate in "hybrid" purchasing model in August

Boulder, Co — July 21, 2005 — EnergyWindow, a supplier of technology tools and consulting services to manage the energy supply used by businesses, has issued a call for participants in its 2005 collective natural gas purchasing event.

The event, dubbed PowerPurchase, is designed to help companies mitigate rising energy costs. This year's PowerPurchase will occur in late August, and the deadline for registration is August 1.

Through the PowerPurchase event, EnergyWindow will be conducting online auctions for natural gas supply in 10 states, including California, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Companies with multiple facilities and significant natural gas usage in these states will be particularly interested in this event, according to EnergyWindow.

"PowerPurchase is a new, hybrid purchasing model that allows companies to band together and achieve savings resulting from volume purchasing, while still retaining the ability to have their own individual contracts and pricing terms," said Jack Mason, president and co-founder of EnergyWindow. "In contrast, a typical energy 'aggregation' purchase forces all participating companies to take the same terms to get volume pricing."

2004 Results

EnergyWindow conducted a PowerPurchase event last year, too. A total of 15 national companies identified savings of roughly $2 million on $10 million in natural gas supply costs. Also, close to 3,000 requests for bid were prepared by EnergyWindow and offered to 47 energy suppliers in early September 2004 for the purchase of more than 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas (bcf).

"Companies that have chosen to remain on regulated tariff rates, believing it will shelter them from rising prices and price volatility, have found this not to be the case over time," explained Mason. "One of the best ways to attack the problem of rising natural gas costs is to seek out competitive bids and lock in good prices for longer periods when market conditions permit."

Mason said that EnergyWindow's recent studies of energy price trends suggest that prices will continue to rise steadily, and that the opportunities represented by energy future price dips have been and will be most likely to occur in the late summer and early fall. "Approaches like PowerPurchase and energy e-procurement make it possible to move quickly enough and with a minimum of effort to take advantage of these often fleeting market opportunities," he said.

More information is available at the EnergyWindow Web site, www.energywindow.com.


Additional Articles of Interest

— How can you beat the trends and lower your less-than-truckload costs, even in a seller's market? For a guide to help you get started, read the SDCExec.com article "LTL Sourcing: Success for Buyers In A Seller's Market."

— It's communications 101. Gain corporate buy-in for your procurement projects with these easy-to-implement tips. See "The Analyst Corner: Procurement" in the June/July 2005 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

Maverick spenders making off-contract purchases and ignoring preferred suppliers lists are still causing many companies to bleed green. For tips on how to bring rogue spenders back from the underground, read "Maverick Spend Redux" in the June/July 2005 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.


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