Wwp Sets Sights On U.S. Market Redmond Sees Company In Top Ten Of Energy Providers

Washington Water Power Co. Chairman Paul Redmond predicts the Spokane utility will be among the leading providers of energy and energy services in the United States within a few years.

The company already is among the leading wholesalers of electricity, he said Wednesday, based almost entirely on its activity in western states.

Redmond, who spoke at a Gonzaga University Business Dean’s Forum, entered the lecture hall in full lineman’s gear and praised the performance of WWP employees during last month’s ice storm.

He concluded his talk with a video dedicated to Jimmie Dean, a WWP natural gas worker who died when he stepped on a downed power line.

In his remarks, he said the knowledge gained selling power up and down the West Coast, coupled with increased understanding of electricity systems in the East and Midwest, will enable WWP to become successful in those areas as well.

He said energy services may include electricity supplies, but the menu also will feature metering, consulting, information services even taking out the trash.

The subsidiary that handles energy services already has a contract with a purchasing group that serves 210 member hospitals in California.

WP Energy Solutions will help members track energy use, identify inefficiencies, and explain the ins and outs of deregulated energy markets.

Redmond said a trial program that allows a few of its largest industrial and business customers to buy one-third of their power from other suppliers has given WWP valuable insight into how the wholesale power market will work in the future.

The test, he noted, will be extended to a sampling of households next year.

Redmond said homeowners will choose their electricity supplier by the year 2000. The testing programs are designed in part to show how lower rates and other benefits from competition will be shared among all consumers, not just the biggest, he said.

Although WWP will make its presence felt nationwide, Redmond said the company will not seek another merger partner.

“It just ain’t worth it,” he said, recalling the two years and $16 million put into an effort to combine with Sierra Pacific Resources.

The deal, dogged by regulatory challenges, was cancelled by WWP in June.

, DataTimes