NEM's Fall Industry Leadership Roundtable will be held in Boston between the last week of September and the second week of October. Many thanks to Nate Owen of Energy Services Group and Mike Foley of First Data Corporation for offering to host this event.

NEM's Winter Executive Committee Meeting will be held in Newport Beach, California during the third week of January. Many thanks to Peter Weigand of Commonwealth Energy for offering to host this event.

Please mark your calendars.

NEM Executive Committee member, The SPi Group, will be releasing a report on Ontario Retail Market Statistics. The Report reveals that 700,000 customers switched to a competitive retailer before the Ontario market opened in May 2002, and switching rates continued to increase until late 2002. In late 2002 the Ontario government capped retail rates for small users which led to a significant drop in customer enrollments (from peak in October 2002 of 20,000 enrollment to a drop to 1,300 enrollments in June 2004). The reforms of the new Ontario government appear to be having a positive effect on the market as evidenced by a slight increase in customer enrollments and historic usage requests from retailers. The full text of The SPi Group Report - Ontario Retail Market Statistics is available on the NEM Website.

Many thanks to Gary Michor of The SPi Group for providing this report to the NEM membership prior to its general release.

NEM will convene a conference call on Tuesday, July 20, 2004, at 2PM EST to discuss legislative activities in Michigan, Ohio and Massachusetts and how to respond to these activities. A Summary of Recently Introduced Legislation on Electric Choice Programs in Michigan and Senator Morrissey's Proposal for a Massachusetts Retail Auction are available on the NEM Website. Potential action in the Ohio legislature will also be discussed. The conference call number is 703-788-0600, and the passcode is 209353.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation is seeking two senior level candidates to fill the following positions: 1) Vice President for Energy Planning & Development; and 2) Vice President for Energy Policy Implementation. The Vice President of Energy Planning & Development will be responsible for: 1) developing and calibrating the Energy Department’s annual business plan; 2) crafting a strategic energy marketing plan to support internal clients; 3) creating energy policy, regulatory and legislative programs; and 4) managing energy resource plans and support work related to the siting of energy facilities in New York City. The Vice President of Energy Policy Implementation will be responsible for: 1) managing the implementation of the twenty-eight recommendations contained in the New York City Energy Policy Task Force Report (“Task Force”); 2) collaborating and working with the co-chairs and members of the four working groups of the Task Force; and 3) recruiting additional support and leveraging public and private resources to successfully achieve and complete the required deliverables of the Task Force. For additional information, contact NEM headquarters.

Staff convened a technical conference on July 13, 2004, to consider whether FERC should institute a rulemaking to consider credit-related issues for service provided by electric transmission providers, ISOs and RTOs as well as ways to reduce credit exposure and minimize mutualized default risk in ISO/RTO markets. An NEM Summary of the technical conference is available from NEM headquarters.

FERC affirmed the generation market power screens it adopted earlier this year. The pivotal supplier screen evaluates an applicant in relation to market supply and demand. The market share screen evaluates an applicant's size in relation to others in the market. Both screens consider native load obligations, operating reserve requirements and other commitments of the applicants. Passage of both screens establishes a rebuttable presumption that the applicant does not possess generation market power, and failure of either screen creates a rebuttable presumption that it does. AEP, Entergy and Southern Companies must now file generation market power analyses pursuant to the two screens. The full text of the Generation Market Power Screen Order is available on the NEM Website.