CSR Press Release

Washington, DC. - May 27, 2009 - DEFG LLC, a management consulting firm focused on energy and the environment, today released survey results on the integrated demand offering of the future. Over 400 industry professionals took the survey from April 21st to May 5th.

An Integrated Demand Offering (IDO) provides a combination of energy efficiency (EE), demand response (DR) and distributed energy (DE) options that best meet the customers’ needs and improve the customer experience.

"There is widespread agreement that an integrated offering – bringing together energy efficiency, better pricing, demand response, and distributed renewable energy – is coming and will be important," stated Jamie Wimberly, CEO of DEFG LLC. "Consumers will be seeking easy-to-use, cleaner, low-cost alternatives to manage higher electricity prices."

Findings from the survey include:

• Experts expect electricity prices to rise, and they believe that better integrated demand offerings can be designed to help consumer reduce bills by a similar percent
  
• "Ease of use" was identified as the top benefit or characteristic of an integrated demand offering from a list of nine, and it reappeared in an open-ended response along with "convenient," "simple," and "cost savings"
  
• Services should not be delivered by government; consumers are open to service delivery by any of the following: ESCO/specialized service provider, utility, competitive retailer or public-private entity/not-for-profit agency
  
• Service providers must develop viable business models and focus on the consumer benefits; the policy focus must be on regulatory incentives and advanced meters
  
• Peak pricing signals are very important if the purpose of the integrated offering is to reduce energy usage; conversely, if an alert is provided without a financial incentive, it is anticipated that the savings will be smaller
  
• Moderate change is expected in the industry, but there are different views regarding the expected pace of change
  
• "Energy costs," "climate change," and "regulation" are seen as important drivers of change

"Changes to pricing, including the tariff structure, will be critical to the success of the IDO in the future," stated Tom Brunetto, DEFG Managing Partner. "Pricing is the glue."

For more information on DEFG LLC or the integrated demand offering, please visit our website: www.defgllc.com.

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