Rider FPP

(c) 2009 F. Bruce Abel

This is for those who have been following the excellent special meetings of Symmes Township, which can be viewed on ICRC this week (the second meeting) and on the ICRC website (first meeting; supposedly the second meeting but my computer hangs up on this one).

Here is what was missing from these meetings, and this is important:

No one from Duke Energy appeared to tell about Rider FPP, which is essential to evaluating any competing offer regarding electricity. (Search "Rider FPP" on my blog herein for explanation).

Without this data a fixed three-year electric contract is a gamble.

No one was there from Duke Energy Retail Sales, which is different from Duke Energy. They (Duke Energy Retail Sales) are there to match whatever the competitor is offering, whereas Duke Energy is not, and will not even refer us to "Duke Energy Retail Sales."

Also missing was Don Marshall of Eagle Energy, the most knowledgeable of the middlemen ready to serve the southern Ohio, Duke territory.

Instead in attendance you had brokers who have served northern Ohio, whose situation is quite different from southern Ohio. Nevertheless, they had valuable presentations.

The best single negotiating observation from the two special meetings:

"In most cases you must multiply the competitor's offer per kwh by 1.065 because there is a 6 1/2 percent sales tax that applies to that competitor's offer."

Of interest is the transcript of Duke's last conference call to Wall Street and other investors:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/170230-duke-energy-corporation-q3-2009-earnings-call-transcript?source=trans_sb_previous&page=7

This covers the 3rd quarter. The 2nd quarter transcript, on first glance, is more informative on our topic. i refer to this 2nd quarter in an earlier blog.