Townsend Says Industrial Electricity Costs Above Average In The Netherlands and Austria.

Business/Energy Editors

BRUSSELS, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2001

Industrial electricity costs in the Netherlands and Austria are well above the European averages, much higher than those in France and Germany, according to Phillip Townsend Associates Inc. (Townsend), who has published the second edition of the Energy Market Quarterly (EMQ). This innovative energy benchmark service gathers electricity cost data from industrial consumers across Europe for their internal use in improving regional competitiveness.

Mark Eggleston, director of Townsend's European Operations said, "Europe is a high energy cost area relative to other regions such as North America and the Middle East. Improving energy cost competitiveness helps protect industries such as steel, glass, paper and chemicals from lower cost imported materials."

The service focuses on electricity cost benchmarks, and will be extended to natural gas next year. The EMQ second edition provides subscribers comparisons of national electricity costs and average costs across Europe. Electric power use profiles allow cost comparisons of similar usage patterns, such as seasonal, daily, or weekly patterns, interruptible or very large demand locations. Industrial sites consuming from 1 to 300 megawatts in all European Union countries are represented. Larger sites can have costs 20% less than smaller sites.

"We expect to have 500 or more industrial sites in the program by year end," Eggleston added. "Our initial efforts, supported by our charter subscribers, have yielded a solid benchmark approach which is easy to implement and provides a statistically sound basis for cost comparisons across various industries, countries and usage profiles."

Support from electricity user groups such as FEBELIEC (Belgium) and VEMW (Netherlands) is now being sought. These groups, and similar ones such as UNIDEN (France), VIK (Germany) and IFIEC (Europe) represent the interests of electric power users. Marcel Van Asbroek, Energy Project Manager for Borealis, a major polymer producer said, "EMQ provides a reliable benchmark to manage electricity costs and improve competitiveness. A multinational industrial consumer can easily track and compare costs from several sites."

Electric power purchasing consortiums have emerged as a viable approach for smaller industrial users such as plastic processors to band together, increasing consumption to the eligible minimum in Italy and elsewhere, and improving negotiating leverage. EMQ is also valuable for municipal and transportation power purchasers.

Townsend is sponsoring a series of free seminars in Brussels and other European industrial centers where prospective users can hear about this innovative benchmark service. To learn more, email Mark Eggleston at [e-mail] or visit http://www.EMQEurope.com.

Townsend is well known in Europe and globally for cost benchmarking in chemicals and plastics with their Performance and Cost Metrics Programs (PCMP). Companion services include their customer satisfaction benchmarking Customer Track (CT) programs, Merger and Acquisition (M&A) support services and volume plastics business consulting. Major offices are in London and Houston, with affiliates located throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. For more information about Townsend contact Shari Gangestad at 281/873-8733, ext. 132, or e-mail [e-mail]. Interested parties may also visit the company's Web site at http://www.ptai.com.