The Buzz  Wednesday, September 20, 2000

In The Buzz this week:

San Diego Customers Seeking Lower Prices Choose EES: San Diego continues to 
be a hotbed for EES National Energy Sales. At one point last week, an EES 
representative closed four deals in one day. Conditions in the area are very 
favorable for commodity sales, as prices for power remain volatile in San 
Diego and consumers are eager to better manage their energy costs. 
Facilitating efforts in San Diego are ready-to-use products from EES Market 
Development ( including a matrix of executable prices and a ready-to-use 
contract) that assist in the closure. See link to Deal Central: 
http://inet.ees.enron.com/vision/comm/dealcentral/   

Enron Included in Fortune,s All-Star List of Global Most Admired Companies: 
In the upcoming October 2 issue of Fortune magazine, Enron for the first time 
has been named to Fortune,s list of most admired companies in the world. 
Fortune,s third annual list of &Global Most Admired Companies8 consists of 
379 companies in 27 industries all over the world. Of those, the top 25 were 
selected as &all stars8 for being the best on a global scale at demonstrating 
a new-economy-style growth strategy while maintaining an old-economy approach 
to fiscal responsibility. Enron came in at 25. Criteria used in compiling the 
rankings focused on nine attributes: quality of management; quality of 
products and services; innovativeness; long-term investment value; financial 
soundness; ability to attract, develop, and retain talent; community 
responsibility; use of corporate assets; and global business acumen. The 
Fortune article singled out Enron, stating that &no company illustrates the 
transformative power of innovation more dramatically than Enron.8 Click on 
link to read entire article and check out other companies on the list: 
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/globaladmired/

Ken Lay Speaks at IOGCC Conference: At a conference held by the Interstate 
Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), Enron Chairman and CEO Ken Lay called 
for regulators to allow the competitive natural gas market to continue to 
offer solutions in reducing consumer exposure to rising prices. Lay warned 
officials against overreacting to the recent run-up in prices and urged them 
to encourage utilities to take advantage of opportunities to protect 
consumers against price volatility. Lay also extolled the merits of 
deregulation, pointing to the fact that &the natural gas market has delivered 
more than $174 billion in savings to consumers since the market was opened to 
competition in 1984.8 Lay also urged government officials to consider lifting 
access restrictions to develop new gas supplies to meet the growing 
electricity generation demand of the digital economy. 

Opportunities for Energy Providers Wide-Open in the Supermarket Sector: A 
recent Store and Equipment Design survey of supermarket operators reveals 
that most retailers are not yet taking advantage of electricity deregulation. 
It was noted that the typical survey respondent has stores in six deregulated 
states, yet on average has changed energy suppliers in only two states. The 
survey cited several reasons for this, including the fact that many retailers 
find the process of bidding out energy procurement, comparing rates and 
switching to be overwhelming. Some of the retailers who have considered 
switching energy suppliers decided it would be too complicated to manage. In 
addition, many retailers reported that the fees charged by utilities to 
transport electricity from another power supplier eat up any savings that 
retailers might realize. 

According to the survey, when retailers have issued RFPs (request for 
proposals) for energy commodity or outsourcing, on average, only three 
proposals were received. Nonetheless, of those switching suppliers, 69 
percent cited price as the number one reason for switching, while 28 percent 
cited service. The survey reported that the majority of retailers are hopeful 
that deregulation will have a positive effect on their energy bills in the 
future. Click on link to read entire article (hit &zoom-in8 tool*looks like a 
little magnifying glass*on above tool bar for clearer text image): 
http://inet.ees.enron.com/vision/comm/media/article.pdf

Wisconsin and Other States Slow Their Deregulation Process: An article in New 
York Times that also ran in the Houston Chronicle discusses how a number of 
states, such as Wisconsin, are adopting a &go-slow8 approach to deregulation, 
so as to avoid the mistakes California has made. Initially, Wisconsin pushed 
for state regulators to give up immediate control over the production and 
pricing of electricity. However, as a result of a 1997 power shortage and the 
developments in California, Wisconsin has decided to first build in an extra 
margin of reliable power to fully meet the state,s growing electricity 
demand. According to the article, most experts agree that a system where 
power generators compete openly to provide electricity at market prices still 
offers the best prospect of lower costs for business and consumers and higher 
profits for utilities than is possible under the traditional system of 
monopoly suppliers supervised by government regulators. 

A Big Thank You to Those Who Participated in Day of Caring: Eighty-five EES 
employees volunteered for the Day of Caring this past Friday. Volunteers took 
up such activities as painting and landscaping at the DePelchin Children's 
Center, which provides adoption and family services and offers more family 
support programs for children, teenagers, and parents than any other 
organization in Houston. Marty Sunde led an energetic team of Risk Management 
employees in painting the gymnasium. Thank you to everyone who gave their 
time for this effort. Click on link to check out photo of some of the 
volunteers: http://inet.ees.enron.com/vision/comm/buzz/images/groupshot.jpg

Brown Bag Presentation Next Wednesday: Don,t miss the Brown Bag presentation 
of Dan Leff, President and CEO Global Energy Services next Wednesday, 
September 27 at 11:30 in EB5C2. Dan,s topic will focus on EES,s efforts to 
profitably deliver on commitments, build strong customer relationships, and 
create incremental value in existing contracts. Click on link for more 
details:
http://inet.ees.enron.com/vision/comm/brownbag/details/00sept27.html

Wired Households Ready for Networking, Smart Appliances and New Services: Now 
that a majority of U.S. homes have computers and Internet access, a new 
national survey finds that consumers are ready to take the next step*namely, 
linking their electronic devices together in home-based networks and using 
their computers to communicate with appliances and energy control systems. 
This spells opportunity for computer and major appliance manufacturers, who 
are preparing to launch new &thinking8 devices during the fall shopping 
season. Likewise, energy service providers have a business opportunity 
through the adoption of power line communications applications to deliver 
additional services to customers.