Avista Energy Loses Traders, Analyst

Two energy traders and one analyst have left Avista Energy Inc. for another company in the highly competitive, fast-paced business.

The departures within the last two weeks are the first suffered by the Spokane company, which in less than two years has surged to the 13th spot (measuring megawatts sold) among the more than 150 trading firms doing business in the U.S.

Traders buy and sell power or natural gas, sometimes on an hourly basis. The business poses significant risks, as several companies in the Midwest discovered last summer when a surge in prices forced them to default on their commitments.

President Gary Ely said Avista Energy revenues last year were $2.4 billion, which yielded $12 million net income for the subsidiary.

Ely said one trader and one analyst left Avista’s Spokane office. The other trader left its Houston branch. The company also has a Boston office it acquired last year.

Ely said Avista employs about 50 traders.

Leaving were Mike Griswold, Rob Kristufek and Luis Pando, according to a release from Hafslund Energy Trading LLC, their new employer.

Hafslund is a new subsidiary of Norway’s largest privately held energy company. Hafslund USA is headquartered in Portland, Maine.

Hafslund Energy will be based in San Francisco.

A report from Dow Jones News attributed the departures to a dispute over bonuses, but Ely said money was not an issue.

The competition for traders is intense, he said, and companies that want to retain their employees must pay the going rate.

“The salaries are substantially different from what people would expect to see in Spokane or the utility,” Ely said.

Ely said Avista will enforce its non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements with the three.

Griswold referred all questions to a New York attorney, whose office had closed for the weekend.