I will be honest, I was part of that process, and let's be realistic, an Energy Supplier is just like every other company on the face of the planet, their job is to maximize margin and minimize risk for their shareholders, the problem with this industry is the Consumer is at a gross information disadvantage when it comes to purchasing their contract.

This really struck me in the face, when a long-time client of mine down in Southern Illinois, went out and conducted an Electric RFP in the spring of 2010. A couple of weeks after I had submitted my MEC offer they called and asked that I drive down to meet with them, because they were having a great deal of trouble trying to figure out the various offers they had received, and asked that I help. Of course, I said "sure" and drove down figuring this would be easy for me, after all, I swim in this sea every day and should not have a problem breaking down the different offers and at the same time collect some seriously good competitive intel.

After a 5 hour drive, I sat in an office for 4 hours that afternoon and I walked out just stunned at what the Energy Buyer was required to weed through to try and figure out what was the best deal on the table. There were 6 different offers, offered 6 different ways, some of the components were not even called the same thing. None of the pricing looked the same, some offers had everything bundled together, some had everything broken out. Some of the Suppliers did not even send contracts with their offers so there was no way to determine what could change in the future and what was actually fixed. Some, in their marketing material, said things were fixed but later it was learned after reading their contracts that fixed did not necessarily mean "locked in and cannot change". In short, it was a mess. Since I was unable to talk to the various Suppliers there was no way I could get to the bottom of what was on the table. And since the Buyers did not understand what questions to even ask there was no way for them to do it.

That evening sitting in my hotel room is when I had the idea for E-Quantum Consulting. I saw that things would probably only get worse and that there might be work for someone able to level the field for those companies going through the process.

After mulling everything over for about a month, I did figure one thing out. I knew I did not want to be an Agent or Broker who got paid by the Supplier. The Suppliers really just add the Agent's or Broker's fee on top of the customer's price, the Supplier is not required to disclose what that fee is and there is nothing that says the fee has to be the same between all the suppliers. My thoughts were, there should be a separation of "Church and State". An adviser, in order to provide unbiased help, should not have a dog in the fight.

In January 2011 I left MidAmerican Energy and formed E-Quantum Consulting as an independent, non-affiliated, energy procurement consulting firm. Our mission, as stated above, is to help the energy buyer buy energy without getting taken advantage of.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Mike (01/11/11)