Centrica PLC filed an application this week with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) seeking retail electric provider status so that it can market electricity and related services to Texans when the state's power market opens for competition in January 2002. Centrica on Tuesday asked the PUC for authority to market electric services to residential and small commercial customers in all deregulated areas of Texas, including the service territories of Reliant, TXU Electric, Central Power & Light, West Texas Utilities, and Texas-New Mexico Power. The company plans to provide service under the Republic Power and Energy America brands in Texas.

Texas native Don B. Whaley has been named president of Centrica's Texas subsidiary. Whaley has more than 20 years of experience in the energy business and worked for Texas-based energy companies El Paso Energy, TXU Energy and Enron prior to joining Centrica in June of this year. Based at Centrica's Houston office, Whaley will manage the company's operations in Texas and throughout the southeast U.S. as further retail opportunities evolve in the region. "Our primary focus will be on the key metropolitan areas of Texas that will be open to competition, specifically Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Corpus Christi, and other communities throughout the state. We're making a strong commitment to Texas and Texans," Whaley said. "In our view, Texas will be a great market, one of the best in North America," Nick Fulford, Centrica's senior vice president, said. "Consumers here understand the value of competition, and we believe they will respond well to a company that has a proven track record of providing both value and service to retail consumers in competitive markets worldwide." Fulford said that the Texas Legislature and the PUC have designed a deregulation system that will work well for Texas consumers and for capable energy providers. "Centrica's experience with deregulation in other states, in Canada, and overseas gives us confidence that Texas is entering deregulation the right way-and that will benefit consumers and everyone involved," Fulford said.

Centrica supplies energy and essential home services to more than 18 million British consumers. It operates in Europe under several well-known consumer brands including British Gas. In 2000, Centrica moved into North America by acquiring Direct Energy, a Canadian retailer that is the largest unregulated retail energy provider in North America. The company supplies natural gas to 900,000 customers in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, and has signed more than 500,000 electricity customers in Ontario ahead of that province's market opening in early 2002. Through its U.S. subsidiaries, including Energy America, Centrica has become the largest multi-state provider of deregulated retail energy services in North America, with more than 400,000 U.S. utility customers principally located in Michigan, Ohio and Georgia. Centrica also recently entered into a joint venture to offer retail energy to customers in continental Europe.