How Can an ESP Survive?

摘要

Energy service providers (ESPs) continue to lose money in the United States, two years after the introduction of competition in California, the New England states, and Pennsylvania. According to publicly available documents, these losses collectively exceed half a billion dollars annually. Two of the largest firms in this market, ENRON and PG&E Energy Services, are respectively losing about a hundred million dollars a year and about fifty million dollars a year. In the English market, ten years after the introduction of competition, margins in the retail energy supply business are razor thin. Profits average less than 1.5 percent of sales. In Australia and New Zealand, about five years after competition, similar percentages exist.