From the well-head to gas marketing, transportation,
and contracting, for Ann T Donnelly, Ph.D., consulting to the new retail
electricity and gas business is a natural outgrowth of her prolific and
varied career. As Principal Consultant for the Vancouver, Washington/Portland,
Oregon, office of Power Resource Managers, LLC., (PRM) and a key member
of a leading U.S. fuels and power development team, Dr. Donnelly specializes
in performing power and gas market assessments and designing strategies
for organizations restructuring for the competitive power industry.
"One thing that has really helped me in
the consulting business," Dr. Donnelly points out, "is having
spent my entire career in the private or deregulated sector - the competitive
sector. The experience of knowing how to move decisively in a competitive
environment is a real advantage - you have to cut your staff, be more
aggressive, be more targeted in your strategy, etc." And, to best
communicate that sense of urgency without creating fear or anxiety, Dr.
Donnelly advocates a team approach, using education to draw clients along
the learning curve and help them reach on their own the conclusions that
they need to reach. "I've found that if you try to force ideas into
an organization you just wind up creating resistance."And, while
it is not always clear which direction the business is going, utilities
need to be prepared to deal with change. "Some of the utilities try
to deny that there is customer choice," explains Dr. Donnelly, "while
others embrace it. Those are the ones that are going to have the best
shot at financial viability."
The greatest potential for savings lies in the
hands of the public utilities. With so many services lumped together into
their delivery rates, very little of their retail costs are open to competition.
Over time, as utilities are forced to unbundle the various components
of their delivery costs, for example, ancillary services and metering,
open them to competition, prices will drop, and utilities will be forced
to become more efficient in order to survive. Utilities will also continue
to divest themselves of their generation plants, introducing the potential
for even greater efficiencies. "But, she warns, "this will take
time."
It was that same sense of urgency that led Dr.
Donnelly to make another pioneering transition- from exploration into
what is now known as gas marketing. Never one to be put off by what no
one else wanted to do, Dr. Donnelly recognized a need to understand the
new gas contracting and marketing opportunities. "I've frequently
found that that's how you gain valuable experience-like cooking for the
Alaskan expedition." So, when nobody else knew what to do with the
boxes of contracts that arrived as part of her firm's newly acquired gas
properties, Dr. Donnelly founded NERCO Oil & Gas's gas marketing and contracting
department, and eventually took responsibility for marketing up to 100,000
Mcf/d of natural gas.
In the electricity business, Dr. Donnelly has
once again demonstrated that she's willing to do what it takes to make
it work-even now, when savings are scarce. "If you're willing to
jump in now and try to figure it out," she explains, "there
are going to be rewards later. And clients will place a greater trust
in you because you were there from the start."
"There is not any one particular outcome
that can be applied to all organizations, which is where my 30 years of
experience helps me to help them make appropriate assessments. And, as
independent consultants," she adds, "we're ale to provide an
impartial perspective. As objective advisers our agenda is ultimately
to provide the best possible customer service-serving both our customers
as well as helping them serve theirs."
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