September 30, 2011

The number of retail natural gas shoppers in the District of Columbia was up by 13 in July, reversing the trend of net accounts lost from the previous three months.  From April through July, the share of DC customers taking competitive service held at 11.6%.

          The bump in accounts in July was driven by the residential sector where marketers gained 21 accounts and C&I slipped by eight.  Share of residential customers held steady at 9.3% while C&I slipped by 0.1 percentage points.

          The long-term numbers were not much different.  Comparing July 2010 to July 2011, 128 choice accounts were added but share was at 11.6% in both months.  Residential choice accounts were up by 224 between 2010 and 2011 though share of accounts over the year was up by 0.1 percentage points.  C&I was a different story with 96 fewer choice accounts and share dropping from 37.3% in July 2010 to 36.7% in July 2011.

          The one-month view of choice volume showed decreases across the board.  Overall shopped load slipped by 1.8 percentage points with residential and C&I down by 0.4 and 3.3 percentage points respectively.

          Comparing July 2010 to July 2011, volume was down overall from 42.5% to 41.6%.  C&I slipped by 2.4 percentage points while residential broke the trend and grew 0.1 percentage points.

District of Columbia natural gas shopping - July 2011
	Accounts			Volume (Therms)
	Choice accounts	All accounts	Choice share	Choice volume	All volume	Choice share
Residential	12,958	139,843	9.3%	220,382	1,887,121	11.7%
Year ago	12,734	138,863	9.2%	215,512	1,852,778	11.6%
C&I	4,696	12,800	36.7%	1,992,629	3,435,192	58.0%
Year ago	4,792	12,838	37.3%	1,937,316	3,209,555	60.4%
Total	17,654	152,643	11.6%	2,213,011	5,322,313	41.6%
Year ago	17,526	151,701	11.6%	2,152,828	5,062,333	42.5%
Source: DC PSC