Enmax Offers Fixed Rate Contracts To Large Power Users

CALGARY, AB -- - Enmax Corp., the Calgary-owned electricity company, is offering fixed-rate contracts to businesses that use more than 250,000 kilowatt-hours a year.

"The offer is available throughout the province," including in Edmonton, said Enmax spokesperson Tony McCallum.

The offer will be available, beginning July 15, for commercial consumers ranging from industries to grocery stores, restaurants, schools and convenience stores. (A typical Alberta home uses about 6,500 kilowatt-hours per year.)

Enmax will offer one-year, 2.5-year and five-year contracts. What a company will pay will be determined by the going rate at that time, much as a homeowner's fixed-mortgage rate depends on the price at the moment of signing.

Enmax has a total of 400,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Epcor Energy Services has been offering commercial contracts since last year, effective Jan. 1, 2001, said vice-president of marketing Ed de Palezieux.

"We've been really pleased with the results," he said. Customers are also attracted by accompanying services, including a "green power" option, online audits, or metering services for malls that identify individual stores.

Epcor's offers start with firms using as little as 60 kilowatts at peak hours and go up from there. For small businesses, there are five-year and 10-year choices. Larger firms can opt for terms up to 20 years, with longer terms usually carrying lower rates.

Enmax estimates there are about 20,000 Alberta customers in the category eligible for its contracts.

The Enmax offer will expire when the 200 megawatts of power Enmax has set aside is contracted out. The power for the deals will come from TransAlta's Wabamun plant. That facility has been down with mechanical problems since last fall, but McCallum said it is being tested and should resume production soon.

In a provincial auction of regulated wholesale power last August, Enmax paid a $75.1 million to buy and sell the 548 megawatts of electricity produced by Wabamun.