Two different firms that specialize in promoting retail marketer offerings on their web sites are branching out beyond Texas, where they have been active in helping residential and large customers sift through numerous marketer rate plans, officials said last week.

The business models of Choose Energy and Saveonenergy.com are similar, but their technology is different and their strategies vary slightly in that Saveonenergy.com is more aggressive about branching into new markets, said Jerry Dyess, General Manager of Choose Energy.

“ We are big believers in competition and consumers savings frm deregulation.  We’re optimistic and we have a good model that will work well on other states,” said Brent Moore, founder and CEO of Saveonenergy.com.

Both companies intend to provide their services to electricity and natural gas customers in states with retail choice, and both companies receive a fee from marketers for every customer that signs up for service through their sites.  The firms are similar to Travelocity, Expedia or other sites where consumers can try to find the best rates for services, but they only make money if customers sign up through their sites, Dyess explained.  “We don’t let energy providers charge more on our site than they do directly” on their own web sites, he said.

Saveonenergy.com has tried a new approach for commercial customers in a pilot project with Direct Energy, and the company is in the process of switching to a system where marketers pay the broker a monthly fee in addition to a commission based on the number of enrollments.  The pilot program has been in place in the Northeast markets, and it has worked for both Direct Energy and Saveonenergy.com, said Moore.

Marketers are willing to pay a monthly fee because “we send the leads to their sales force” through tracking software that follows who visits the web site, Moore said.  Compared with residential customers, commercial customers are less prone to sign up for service through a web site, but Saveonenergy.com can provide marketers with good leads that result in new contracts for larger customers, he said.

From its starting point of focusing on electricity in Texas, Saveonenergy.com has expanded into New York, Ohio, New Jersey, and Illinois and it includes natural gas rate offerings in those states.  “I picked the name Saveonenergy.com so it included both” electricity and gas, Moore said, adding that retail gas markets, such as those in Georgia and Ohio, are more mature than power markets in several states.  “We’re looking for people that are shopping online: and “I think the mature markets will give us opportunities,” he said.

This week the company is announcing an expansion into Michigan, Massachusetts, Georgia, Connecticut, Indiana and Maryland, with some of those states only having retail choice in gas.  “Our goal is to be in every deregulated market in the next 12 to 18 months,” Moore said.

The activity in Texas has been heavy for both companies, including leading up to the expiration of price-to-beat service at the end of the year, Moore and Dyess said in separate interviews.  Besides offering fixed rates or rates based on power from renewable resources, the marketers often include gift cards or other perks for signing contracts through the online services.

“Our goal is to provide not only price savings, but also significant and rewarding offers for our customers,” Moore said in a statement.  “We’re not just about rates.  The success of our site has prompted electricity providers to truly compete for the consumer’s business,” he said.

Beside the for-profit firms that provide information to consumers, the Texas Public Utility Commission has its own web site, powertochoose.org, that lists different rates available from the multitude of marketers in the state.  The PUC has planned to revamp the site to make it less confusing for consumers to use, since typing in a zip code could yield up to 50 or 60 different offers, with different terms and resources included

In addition to Choose Energy and Saveonenergy.com, another online competitor is Whitefence, which has grown and provides customers with price quotes for all types of services, including telecommunications, cable television and Internet, Moore said.

Choose Energy recently added Direct Energy to its roster of about 20 marketers, listing the company’s price protection plan, a guaranteed rate for 12 months with no cancellation penalty, and its prevention plus plan, which combines power supplies with preventive maintenance plans for consumers’ heating and cooling system.

”Choose Energy’s web-based convenience, and its capability to compare plans, calculate rates based on real-time marker conditions, and allow customers to choose providers on its site supports Direct Energy’s philosophy of being simple, friendly, and direct retailer for Texans looking to take advantage of their ability to choose,” Laura Raymond, senior vice president for Texas at Direct Energy, said in a statement.

The brokers have stringent screening requirements for marketers that want to post their offers on the web sites, and they have rejected several that were not well respected or did not have strong financial backing, Moore and Dyess said.

“There are a lot of companies that have jumped into the retail market and done some crazy things with pricing,” Moore said, adding that he receives multiple calls every week from energy marketers.  “We’re totally independent.  We can turn down anyone we want” and with a background in the energy industry “we know the players well and we do not get in a big hurry to add someone,” he said.

Choose Energy, which has been operating since July 2006, is expanding into New York in the next two months, and it intends to provide services to customers in New Jersey and Ohio by the end of the year, Dyess said.  Further expansions into Maryland and other states with competitive natural gas markets are planned in 2008, he said.

Residential customers make up about 80% of the company’s revenues, and enrollments have increased steadily since the business started, Dyess said.  “We’re about to launch an aggressive marketing campaign in Texas” involving TV, radio, print, and Internet ads, to coincide with hotter weather expected to hit the state later this month he said.

Choose Energy’s technology differs from Saveonenergy.com in that consumers who sign up to buy power from a marketer through Choose Energy never leave the company’s web site, Dyess said.  Because Saveonenergy.com feeds customers into the marketers’ sites, it is easier to expand into other states and utility territories, Moore said.

Saveonenergy.com is a privately held company.  Choose Energy is owned by publicly traded Amen Properties, a real estate and energy company that includes Priority Power Management, a consulting firm that specializes in energy management for commercial and industrial customers.  Priority Power Management has more than 800 clients using more than 4 billion kWh, and often if large C&I customers contact Choose Energy about special rates not available online, the company will refer them to its affiliate, Dyess said.