|
|
|
|
|
Ambit Energy's Chambless Compares Current Retail Energy Climate to Telecomm Experience, Expects Similar Consolidation The current climate of the retail energy markets reminds Ambit Energy's Chris Chambless, Chief Marketing Officer, of the telecomm market prior to a wave of consolidation in the latter industry, Chambless told EnergyChoiceMatters.com in an interview yesterday.
A veteran of the competitive long-distance and local exchange markets, including at Excel Communications, Inc., Chambless sees a "glut" of competitors in the retail energy space similar to what he saw in telecomm.
This hyper-competition has led to retail energy pricing which "doesn't make sense," and rates into which risk is not fully priced, Chambless said. "Companies who don't price risk into their product ultimately aren't around very long," Chambless said.
"A cycle of consolidation follows that, and I expect the same thing to happen here [in retail energy]," Chambless said.
Chambless reported that Ambit is interested in growing inorganically through opportunities presented by this inevitable market shake-out. Ambit's proprietary billing platform was built, in part, to accommodate large scale growth (organic and inorganic), and Chambless noted that the platform successfully integrated the Commerce Energy ERCOT book several years ago.
Ambit also projects strong organic growth to continue, with double-digit annual growth projected in each state in which Ambit is active over the next year.
This includes Pennsylvania, where Chambless did say there is some "cause for concern" given the current climate, due to utility default service pricing which does not fully reflect market conditions. Still, Chambless remains "optimistic" about the Pennsylvania market and expects eventual improvement in market design. Chambless blamed, in part, "bad actors" and suppliers with high complaint rates for giving policymakers pause on embracing a fully competitive retail market.
Although Chambless expects continued growth in Pennsylvania, Chambless said that based on current migration stats, some of this growth will be from winning customers from other retail suppliers, rather than from default service, though he could not forecast specific percentages.
Ambit expects to enter five to six states in the next two to three years, focused in the Northeast and East Coast, particularly those that are investigating implementation of purchase of receivables.
Chambless also reported that Ambit is working to develop what is essentially a peak-time/critical peak rebate-type program in Texas, under which Ambit would actively ask customers for load reductions during ERCOT peaks.
Chambless expects that this program will be rolled out for this winter, to help manage any winter peaks or other transient events. Given Ambit's network marketing strategy, Chambless said that the concern is to keep it simple, and the program will likely be a feature/add-on offered to customers generally in advance of critical peaks, as opposed to a stand-alone peak-time rebate product with unique rates.
Ambit Energy recently surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue for the last 12 months, and earlier passed 1 million residential customers (based on RCEs).
ADVERTISEMENT Search for more retail energy careers: Copyright 2010-
June 5, 2013
Email This Story
Copyright 2010-13 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com:
• Sr Sales Representative -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• Manager/Director, Commercial & Industrial Sales -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• Electricity Program Director -- Retail Provider
• Natural Gas Scheduler -- Retail Provider
• Chief Regulatory Officer -- Retail Supplier
• Counsel/Sr. Counsel
• Compliance Specialist -- Retail Provider
• Contract Administrator -- Retail Provider -- Texas
• Director, Financial Planning and Analysis -- Retail Provider
RetailEnergyJobs.com
|
|
|
|
|