Energy Convergence in Canada: — R.J. Rudden Associates, Inc. Retained by Enmax Energy Corporation — Team Managers Call Upon the Rudden/Brown Williams Alliance to Assist in Canadian Western Natural Gas Company Intervention

Business Wire, July 6, 1999

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1999--

R.J. Rudden Associates, Inc. (Rudden) has been retained by Enmax Energy Corporation, the municipal electric utility and independent energy marketer owned by the City of Calgary, in Alberta, to assist it in its intervention opposite Canadian Western Natural Gas Company, a subsidiary of ATCO Group. The objective of the intervention before the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board is to ensure a level playing field in the rapidly converging and competitive Albertan energy market.

Enmax has been a client of Rudden since the early 90's, when the City of Calgary retained Rudden to provide economic and policy advice as the Province of Alberta first began considering the restructuring of the electric industry. With the passage of provincial legislation in 1996 that set deregulation and restructuring into motion, Enmax has become an increasingly active advocate of fair energy competition, and an aggressive player in the market.

In the Canadian Western proceeding, Rudden team managers will draw upon the resources of the Rudden/Brown Williams Alliance, to examine the distribution company's proposed rate design and underlying cost of service studies to ensure that distribution access and transportation rates, as well as tariff terms and conditions, are fair and non-discriminatory, and promote a level playing field. "As the Albertan energy industry continues to converge, Enmax is most concerned that open access to competing energy service providers is available to all energy users on a non-discriminatory basis," said Cheryl Beach, Vice President at Rudden, and Enmax's expert witness. "Further, while Enmax is primarily an electric utility serving the citizens of Calgary, its affiliated marketing company plans to provide energy products and services in the future, and the policy and pricing issues surrounding natural gas transportation and the availability of competitive energy-related services are among our highest priorities."

The Rudden/Brown Williams Alliance will examine the implications of a variety of complex upstream, midstream and distribution level natural gas issues on distribution level unbundling, rate design and purchased gas mechanism design. According to John Neri, Senior Vice President at Brown Williams, "Bundled rates create cross-subsidies which distort the true cost of using a portion of a utility's facilities and services and result in less efficient markets for the services offered by the utility. With unbundling, these cross-subsidies are minimized leading to a more efficient market for LDC services."

The Rudden/Brown Williams Alliance was established in September of 1997, to offer customers the benefits of the substantial U.S. and Canadian natural gas pipeline expertise embodied in the two firms, as well as their broad experience in electric and natural gas convergence issues. The Alliance provides a wide array of regulatory, economic, technical, financial and policy consulting services to more than 300 domestic and international electric and natural gas clients. The services offered by the Rudden/Brown Williams Alliance span the full range of the energy value chain, including production, transportation and distribution, storage and delivery. Alliance consultants have testified in literally hundreds of proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, State commissions, Canadian Provincial energy boards, the Canadian Energy Board, civil and bankruptcy courts, and municipalities. The Alliance is headquartered in Washington, D.C., where both Rudden and Brown Williams maintain common offices. In addition, the Alliance members maintain offices in New York, Houston and San Francisco. Additional information is available on Rudden's web site at www.rjrudden.com.

Cheryl Beach can be reached as follows:

R.J. Rudden Associates, Inc.

750 17th Street, N.W., Suite 400

Washington, D.C. 20006

(202) 223-1884 - (202) 223-9159

E-mail: cbeach@rjrudden.com