NEM is pleased to announce that Energy Services Group (ESG) has been nominated to NEM's Executive Committee. ESG, provides billing and transaction management services to energy companies operating in North American energy markets. ESG’s outsourced solutions support nearly 100 energy companies in the business of marketing, transporting, transmitting and distributing natural gas and electricity. Since 1996, ESG has developed and operated back office systems that support the operating protocols of competitive energy service territories from Maine to California. ESG will be represented within NEM by Nate Owen, President and CEO, Bob Potter, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Drew Fenton, Vice President, Business Development, and Arthur Pearson, Vice President, Billing.

Please register early for NEM's Annual Membership Meeting and National Restructuring Conference. It will be held on March 31 and April 1, 2004, in Washington, DC at the Capitol Hyatt. House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Barton, FERC Chairman Wood, CFTC Chairman Newsome, FERC Commissioner Brownell, CFTC Commissioner Brown-Hruska, NARUC President Wise, NJBPU President Fox, ICC Chair Hurley, NARUC BPL Committee Chair and MIPSC Commissioner Chappelle have all confirmed that they will be presenting keynote addresses at the NEM event.

If you wish to sponsor this event, please use this hotlink and contact headquarters. Harts Magazine has offered to do a special section featuring our VIP sponsors. You may view the agenda and register for the event by using this hotlink. Registration Information is also available on the NEM Website.

The Winter Executive Committee Policy and Planning Meeting was held January 20th and 21st, 2004, in Houston, Texas. CEOs from 40 member companies in the US and Canada attended the meeting to address the industry's priorities for 2004. Separate retail, wholesale, and technology issue identification break out sessions provided a number of significant insights into the current state of the industry and its likely direction for 2004. Reports from NEM members were very encouraging and the upcoming year looks promising. A summary NEM Year End Review is available on the NEM Website. NEM's Retail Issues, Wholesale Issues, and Technology and Services Issues for 2004 are also available on the NEM Website. A detailed report on NEM's issues and priorities for 2004 will soon be available.

Senate Democrats have introduced two pieces of stand-alone energy legislation. One bill is meant to establish reliability standards (S2014) and the other is meant to prohibit energy market manipulation (S2015 - not available yet). The bill offered by Hillary Clinton of New York, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and James Jeffords of Vermont, would give FERC the power to set mandatory grid reliability standards. Separate legislation sponsored by Cantwell, Feingold and Jeffords, the "Electricity Needs Rules and Oversight Now" bill would require FERC to ban trading strategies like "Death Star" and "Fat Boy".

On November 25, 2003, FERC adopted standards of conduct for transmission providers. Under the regulations, by February 9, 2004, each transmission provider is required to file with FERC and post on OASIS or the Internet a plan and schedule for implementing the Standards of Conduct. FERC also required transmission providers, by June 1, 2004, to post on OASIS or the Internet, their current procedures implementing the standards of conduct in detail.

FERC issued a Guidance to provide transmission providers additional information on what data they should include in their February 9th informational filings and June 1st posting. FERC stated that the February 9th filings should explain the transmission provider's current compliance status, estimate the cost of full compliance, and identify general measures to be taken to come into full compliance. FERC stated that the June posting should identify the measures that the transmission provider has taken to ensure the independent functioning of the transmission function. The transmission provider should also identify all facilities shared with any energy affiliates, including physical facilities and electronic facilities, and explain how the transmission provider is restricting access to transmission, customer and market information. The transmission provider should also identify the name of the Chief Compliance Officer and provide contact information. The full text of FERC's Guidance is available on the NEM Website.

FERC will convene a two-part technical conference on compensation of must run generating units in organized markets. The first part of the conference (February 4, 2004, 9:30AM) will focus on broad general principles for pricing of must-run generating units and the general framework FERC should use to address this issue. The second part of the conference (February 5, 2004, 9:30AM) will focus on PJM’s specific proposal regarding compensation for must-run generating units. The Agenda for the FERC meeting is available on the NEM Website. NEM will be participating in this conference.

Many thanks to NEM's Norteast Wholesale Policy Chair Stephen Wemple for offering to testify at this conference.