New Haven Register

Luther Turmelle , North Bureau Chief

May 5, 2007

UI users get 4th choice

Residential customers of the United Illuminating Co. will soon have fourth choice if they want to change their electric supplier in order to save money.
MXenergy of Stamford announced Friday it will soon begin supplying power to residential and commercial customers in UI’s service area, which covers 17 municipalities in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas.

MXenergy will begin its marketing campaign in June, company officials said.

Jeffrey Mayer, MXenergy’s president and chief executive officer, said the company’s residential service will offer consumers a price that is lower than UI’s, while at the same time protecting them from price spikes that plague the nation’s volatile energy marketplace.

"It will be lower, a little below what UI is offering, but I don’t know how much at this point," Mayer said. "But there is a real value to the price protection we offer. If you like a fixed-rate mortgage, you’re going to love our fixed rates for our product."

MXenergy was founded in 1999 and has nearly 500,000 electricity and natural gas customers in 14 states and two Canadian provinces, said Pamela Fink, a company spokeswoman.

MXenergy will join Levco Energy, Consolidated Edison Solutions, Constellation New Energy in providing alternatives to UI and Connecticut Light & Power, said Beryl Lyons, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Utility Control, which approved MXenergy’s license as an electrical supplier in the state.

Nearly 50,000 Connecticut residents have switched from the two major power suppliers, UI and CL&P, as of the end of March, Lyons said. More than 8,500 of the residential customers who switched had been with UI, she said. A dramatic increase in electric prices has prompted new companies to enter the state market as power suppliers. Rates for UI customers will have increased in July by 50 percent over what they were at the end of last year, while CL&P’s rates have risen 29.7 percent since the beginning of 2006.