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Gold/Mining/Energy : Keystone Energy Services - KESE on BB Nasdaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ron forgus who wrote (125)	11/27/1997 9:46:00 PM
From: ron forgus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 307

SOURCE: New Energy Ventures Inc. Ralphs Grocery Company Forms Unique Partnership With New Energy Ventures to Profit from Energy Deregulation LOS ANGELES, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Ralphs Grocery Company, capping a year-long review of its energy supply options, has chosen New Energy Ventures as its full-service energy partner in the deregulated electricity market that will open in California January 1, 1998. Ralphs is the largest supermarket operator in Southern California, with 344 retail stores as well as distribution and food processing centers that require large amounts of electricity to operate refrigeration equipment, pumps, fans, and processing equipment. ''With tens of millions of dollars a year in electricity bills in our California stores, it is essential that we maximize our competitive advantage through lower energy costs and improved energy services,'' said Tony Schnug, Ralphs Group Senior Vice President, Support Operations. ''Recognizing that our rates would be frozen at existing high levels until 2002 if we took no action, we reviewed our options with our present utilities and the major power marketers. We chose New Energy Ventures because their proposal provides us an opportunity to realize substantial savings through electricity deregulation. Their proposal also outlines a full range of energy services not available from any other competitors that will further reduce our costs and improve our energy efficiency.'' ''Once again, Ralphs demonstrates its leadership and innovation, in the supermarket industry,'' said Michael R. Peevey, President of Los Angeles-based New Energy Ventures. ''By joining with New Energy Ventures, Ralphs will lower its costs and better serve its customers. We are pleased to be able to help Ralphs cut its operating costs immediately by millions of dollars each year, with the prospect for even larger savings in the years ahead.'' A key benefit for Ralphs is New Energy Ventures' ability to rapidly review the specific energy needs of each store, install sophisticated new metering and communications systems, and allow the store to begin receiving the benefits of deregulation immediately when the market opens. ''Every month of delay in our participation in the competitive energy marketplace would have cost us many hundreds of thousands of dollars,'' said Schnug. ''With New Energy Ventures we're confident that we can begin achieving savings immediately when competitive markets are opened in California.'' New Energy Ventures achieves savings for its customers by aggregating their energy buying power through the New Energy Buyers' Alliance(SM), the nation's largest retail electricity buyer's consortium. The consortium today represents more than 700 megawatts of load in California alone, with that number expected to double in the next few months, Peevey said. New Energy Ventures expects to purchase at least $1 billion and perhaps as much as $2 billion of electricity in behalf of its customers during 1998. In addition to providing significant savings in energy costs, New Energy Ventures offers its customers services not available from local utility companies, and conventional power marketers. These services include a unique Internet-based energy use reporting and billing system that will allow members of the New Energy Buyers' Alliance(SM) to review energy consumption and energy cost savings daily for each individual facility. The system was developed by New Energy Ventures and its strategic partner, LG&E Energy Marketing. Ralphs Grocery Company currently operates 264 conventional Ralphs supermarkets and 80 Food 4 Less warehouse stores in Southern California, 27 Cala Foods, Bell Markets and FoodsCo stores in Northern California, and 37 Falleys and Food 4 Less stores in the Midwest. The company has annual sales of more than $5.5 billion. New Energy Ventures was formed in 1995 to serve clients in every state where a competitive energy market is emerging, including California and the New England, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions. With headquarters in Los Angeles, New Energy Ventures has regional offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay area. As competitive energy markets develop in other states, New Energy Ventures will continue to expand nationally. New Energy Ventures is 50 percent owned by Tucson Electric Power Co. [NYSE:TEP - news], and 50 percent owned by its founders and senior employees. SOURCE: New Energy Ventures Inc. -