Articles About Utilitywarehouse.com
Articles About Utilitywarehouse.com
Web-based
business-to-business exchange fuels by energy crisis
Monday, February 5, 2001
California's
power shortage has boosted energy levels at the Utility
Warehouse, an online business-to-business exchange.
The
Portland company, which lists used and surplus utility
equipment on its Web site, is getting phone calls and server
hits from contractors, manufacturers and others battling
chaos in California's power supplies and prices.
In
particular, Marketing Director Lane Kadel said, the Utility
Warehouse is hearing from plants that are vulnerable to the
state's interruptible power exchange program.
Manufacturers
that participate in the program, such as General Mills, can
have their power diverted elsewhere with only 30 minutes'
notice. Their options are to go black, meaning that they
lose power completely; to keep the power flowing by agreeing
to pay 100 or more times the usual cost of a kilowatt hour;
or to crank up their own backup generators.
Kadel
said many California lumber companies are turning to option
No. 3, judging from their increased interest in buying
steam-turbine generators that burn waste wood, known as hog
fuel.
The
Utility Warehouse has 25,000 to 35,000 pieces of equipment
listed at any given time, including steam-turbine generators
that burn hog fuel, Kadel said.
Since
its founding by three former Bonneville Power Administration
engineers and managers, the Utility Warehouse has seen more
than $40 million of equipment sold via its Web site (www.utilitywarehouse.com).
The figure includes items such as power circuit breakers,
transformers, switches, load interrupters, insulators,
conductors, transmission and distribution line structures
and poles.
Between
200 and 400 companies pay $600 a year for unlimited listings
on the Web site, plus additional fees for search boxes,
vendor page links and other Web services. The Utility
Warehouse's three-person staff, operating as Resource
Management Associates, also acts as equipment brokers,
earning commissions on deals they put together for buyers
and sellers.
"It's
amazing how fast this stuff goes in the market," Kadel
said.
--
Steve Woodward
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2001 Oregon Live. All rights reserved. This material may not
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