May 2008 for Power Magazine
TRENDS
Retail Competition
This “nuts and bolts” department doesn’t usually feature a conference report. But the one we’re including in this issue is about a unique conference: KEMA’s annual Executive Forum.
Change in the power generation industry is occurring at an unprecedented rate. POWER’s mission is to keep you apprised of the trends driving those changes, and events like KEMA’s conference tend to shed light on the big picture. For plant operators, the impact of today’s trends will be on tomorrow’s plant O&M practices.
Finding KEMA. Some readers may ask, “Who is KEMA?” KEMA is a big Netherlands-based consulting firm that provides technical and management services to the global energy industry. It was formed in 1927 as a testing laboratory, much like Underwriters Labs (UL) in the U.S. In fact, in Holland and many parts of Europe, there still exist appliances with a KEMA label certifying that they passed the company’s safety tests.
Later, KEMA started providing consulting services to European and Asian utilities. It opened shop in the U.S. during the 1970s. Today, with 700-plus consultants dedicated to the global power and natural gas industries, KEMA’s Retail Energy Markets advisory service is a leading source of business intelligence and market analysis to the competitive retail energy industry.
KEMA’s 19th annual Executive Forum brought to Dallas about 300 energy executives to discuss and debate the outlook for competitive retail electric markets. Currently, 20 states and the District of Columbia allow customer choice to some degree (Figure 1).