GREENE – Members of the Greater Greene Chamber of Commerce had a unique opportunity recently to learn more about what may be Chenango County’s best-kept business secret.
The object of their interest was the host of this month’s Business After Hours: Empire Natural Gas. ENG’s immaculate, yet unassuming location just a few yards from the grass landing strip at Greene Airport might fool some, but the business, operated with five, full-time staff members out of the home of owners, Marcel and Colleen Barrows, is an important player in the energy supply market.
According to Senior Account Manager Joanne Young, the 19-year-old company supplies deregulated natural gas and electricity to non-residential customers. “Due to changes in government regulations, customers are able to purchase from energy suppliers like ourselves rather than utilities,” said Young, who acted as a tour guide during the event.
Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that. ENG’s first step is to forecast the daily energy usage of their customers. Then they purchase the amount needed to meet that demand.
Much of the natural gas they purchase is from distant locations in Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, but now that the commodity is available closer to home, they have begun to use local suppliers as well.
“We do purchase from Nornew in Norwich and Fortuna in Horseheads,” said Accounts Control Administrator Alicia Hufnagle.
The company pays for the natural gas and electricity they purchase, store and distribute through existing infrastructure. It is transported through existing natural gas pipelines and electric power lines to the local utility’s city gate. From there it is distributed by the utility to the commercial customer.
Customers receive two bills, one of which comes from ENG for their energy usage and the other from their utility for distribution.
“We service every utility in the upstate New York market,” said Young. According to Hufnagle, the utilities they service include NYSEG, Rochester Gas & Electric, National Grid (formerly Niagara Mohawk) and Corning Natural Gas.
By using ENG’s energy supply and management services, customers save money. “Smaller customers are able to save 5 to 10 percent, while larger customers save 10 to 20 percent,” said Young of their natural gas consumers.
Cost savings are not as substantial for ENG’s electric consumers because of the complexities of the electric market.
The tariff structure and regulations downstate have led ENG to concentrate on the upstate New York market, but there are plenty of complex regulations for them to navigate in this market as well.
“Energy supply must balance with customer usage,” said Young. Penalties are incurred if they fail to do this on a daily basis.
The company currently has more than 1,000 natural gas customers and more than 500 electric customers, all of which are non-residential. ENG counts more than 70 school districts, numerous counties and municipalities as well as countless corporate customers in its client list, including several newer customers in Chenango County.
ENG has no plans to offer services to residential customers in the near future. “Other companies do accommodate residential, but we can’t do that with five employees,” said owner Marcel Barrows. Expanding the business to service these additional customers would mean adding call centers, which Barrows is worried would cause the company to lose the personal touch they currently provide.
“We have been successful with our current business model servicing non-residential customers,” he said. “We plan to continue with the business model that has gotten us this far.”
That model has been very successful for Barrows and ENG. The company sold 4.4 million dekatherms of natural gas and 59,700 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2007.