Pilot programs offer valuable insight into competitive future
- ed.
Retail wheeling pilot programs have quickly become the touchstone upon which utilities and other power suppliers can attempt to determine how their customers, as well as their competitors` customers, are going to react once full-scale customer choice becomes a reality. So important is the gauging of customer reaction to the whole notion of choice that there is little wonder why so many states have already initiated pilots or have passed retail wheeling pilot legislation. An intriguing question, then, revolves around the answer to the question, do pilot programs really mimic reality? This seems important because if pilots actually do help gauge a true retail wheeling scenario, then why don`t all states take part? It seems as though the investment would be well worth the effort. John Belgiovine, Plum Street Energy Marketing regional sales manager, agrees. Belgiovine said there is little doubt that pilots are a great idea and that while nothing but the true thing can actually be reality, he does feel pilot programs offer the closest thing to reality that utilities have right now - and that should be reason enough to invest in them. Utilities as well as marketers and other power suppliers participating in retail wheeling pilots - that is, being on a list of power suppliers that customers can choose from - are proving invaluable, he said. `We`re participating, as are others, to learn what customers want and then to answer some of their questions.` For energy marketers, Belgiovine said, there are particularly valuable learning lessons attached to pilots. The kinds of questions customers ask in regard to switching from a utility supplier to an alternative supplier (such as an energy marketer) and also learning what customers will expect in the competitive future would otherwise be a missing link were it not for pilots.
- OSTI ID:
- 456719
- Journal Information:
- Electric Light and Power, Vol. 75, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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