EDMOND, Okla., January 31, 2000—The gas and electric industries in several states will be deregulated this year, forcing many utilities to improve their energy supply-and-demand prediction with the help of commercial weather forecast providers. One such company, WeatherBank Inc., uses unique forecasting tools and the Internet to give utilities the much-needed weather data.

Weather forecasts are a part of complex energy load forecasting models used to predict the amount of energy individual utilities will need to use, buy or sell in the near future. Adequate preparation ensures that each utility will have sufficient energy resources and can avoid buying energy at the last minute on the open market where prices can skyrocket.

Oklahoma-based WeatherBank supplies predictions of temperature, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, dew point, chance of precipitation or any other weather parameter a client needs in an hour-by-hour format for 10 days or more in advance. This data is updated several times a day and transferred to the client directly through Internet FTP or made available on private websites—something few, if any, other weather providers are doing, said Michael R. Root, executive vice-president and chief financial officer for WeatherBank.

“We have nearly 30 years of experience in providing weather forecast data to the energy marketplace,” said Root. “Because our forecasts are so precise, our clients’ energy demand predictions are much more accurate, and as a result, their costs stay low. The savings our clients typically see are hundreds of times more than the minimal cost of the service.”

“With the deregulation of the gas industry, [weather data] is crucial in our day-to-day operations of supplying our customers with gas at the cheapest price,” said Lee J. Riley, operations engineer for Oklahoma Natural Gas.

For more information on WeatherBank’s services for utilities and other energy providers, call 1-800-687-3562 or visit the company online at www.weatherbank.com/demo/energy/.

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