PRESS RELEASE

Demand response firm explains why PJM is attractive
Washington, DC, Jan. 4

Energy Curtailment Specialists (ECS) is bringing its economic demand response program to PJM because it sees a need for the resource there, the firm said yesterday.
ECS offers a best-efforts program without penalties that pays participants for cutting power when the grid is unstable.  The firm gives advance notice to customers when an event is expected.
The firm wants to expand and it believes it can bring a good product to the service territory, Vice President of Product Development Paul Tyno told us yesterday.
PJM and other areas of the country seem primed for an expansion of DR, he added.
"There has to be the right financial motivation for a resource to want to participate and put themselves in a position where they're responding to a load reduction event," said Tyno.
Energy prices alone don't attract demand responders, he added.  Markets have to have a capacity price or some other mechanism to make consumers cut load.
ECS spends a lot of time with its C&I customers making sure the firm doesn't try to push a "square peg into a round hole."
Long before a call to cut load is made, ECS provides its customers with insight as to what load yields the most reduction -- and the firm provides a DR audit at the site.
Businesses shut down production lines, turn down public area and office lighting, cut cooling in some areas and turn off non-critical equipment.  Plus ECS will pay the fuel costs if a firm shifts some of its power to an emergency generator during the event.
Also customers get interval metering installed free of charge to measure data during an event.
This story has been redistributed with permission from Restructuring Today, the nation's leading trade journal chronicling competitive energy markets.  For more information, please visit http://www.restructuringtoday.com.

Thank you,