Extending the Natural Gas Trading Model
In the mid-1990s, Enron began extending its gas trading model to other
markets. It sought markets with certain characteristics: the markets were fragmented,
with complex distribution systems, the commodity was fungible, and
pricing was opaque. Markets identi ed as targets included electric power, coal,
steel, paper and pulp, water and broadband cable capacity. Enron’s model was to
acquire physical capacity in each market and then leverage that investment through
the creation of more exible pricing structures for market participants, using
nancial derivatives as a way of managing risks. Enron argued that the systems and
expertise it had acquired in gas trading could be leveraged to the new markets. The
trading model therefore was touted as a way for Enron to continue to grow
spectacularly as it diversi ed from a pure energy rm into a broad-based nancial
services company.
The rst market to be developed was electric power. To implement its model
in this market, Enron had to gure out how to ensure that it could meet commitments
to provide power in peak periods. Unlike natural gas, electricity cannot be
stored to satisfy peak demand, leading to even higher price volatility than in the gas
market. Enron responded to this challenge by constructing “peaking plants” designed
to meet short-term peaks in demand.
Enron had some successes in applying the gas bank trading model to electricity,
but the viability of the model for some of the other products selected for
expansion was uncertain. Would the additional contractual exibility offered by
Enron in the gas and electricity markets be as popular in the new markets? Further,
each new market posed unique challenges. For example, while customers could not
distinguish differences in the sources of gas or electricity, they cared about and
could observe changes in water quality. The chalenges of selling long-term contracts
for broadband cable access included the use of unproven and nonstandardized
technology, dif culties in extending ber optic networks over the “last mile”
into buildings and excess capacity. Finally, even if Enron was successful in creating
these new markets, it was unclear whether early rents could be sustained given
potential competition in each market.