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Power Play
Manufacturing group wins right to organize
electric consumers in state
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Business New Haven
10/18/1999
By: Michele Beck
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The state's Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) has awarded the state's first-ever license to aggregate electric purchasers to the Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut (MAC).
In a decision issued September 27, state regulators licensed MAC to aggregate electric customers of all kinds - commercial, industrial, residential, governmental - into a buying pool to purchase electric power in the state's newly deregulated marketplace.
More than 200 Connecticut manufacturers have agreed to permit MAC access to usage and demand data from the state's electric distribution utilities, Connecticut Light & Power (CLP, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities) and the United Illuminating Co.
MAC officials expect that interest will grow. On January 1, Connecticut customers in "distressed" municipalities will be eligible to buy from electric power suppliers other than the local utilities. In July of next year all electric consumers will enjoy that prerogative.
"We are prepared to be inundated with phone calls and additional release forms [allowing MAC access to usage data for individual companies]," said MAC energy counsel Jeff Gaudiosi. "It is very exciting to be on the cutting edge in the deregulation process."
The issue is a critical one for MAC members since manufacturers as a group are the largest-volume consumers of electric power. "Electric aggregation is the key for large companies where even one percent of additional savings over the standard offer can help them to compete, add jobs or invest in their own infrastructure," said MAC Executive Director Frank Johnson.
It is not MAC's first foray into organizing to create economies of scale for commercial utility customers. Based in Waterbury, MAC is a 300-member trade association that built "the largest and most successful aggregated natural-gas buying consortium in Connecticut," said Gaudiosi, "saving participants an average of 15 percent on their gas bills in the current year."
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