ABSTRACT
“Deregulation” entered the scene in 1999, with California being the first state to jump in with both feet. As of the time of this writing, 22 states have since deregulated. However, deregulation has not changed the world the way the originators intended. It has also not made everyone blissfully happy like we thought it was going to back in 1999. It did, however, change many utility mindsets and made them more customer-service-oriented. Utilities are stable entities to work for, which is essential to understand when dealing with them because of the type of employee they tend to attract. Seldom do they lay people off. Energy managers and others who find themselves thrown into a position of overseeing energy in industrial plants have a lonely plight. That is because the most that many folks have thought about energy costs is that people must pay the bill for their power or their energy will get cut off.
