For your evaluation: Bullfrog Power

From the NB Businessjournal site

Bullfrog Power arrives on the Maritime energy scene
Published Thursday November 5th, 2009
B1QUENTIN CASEY
FOR THE TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
- Bullfrog Power is leaping into the Maritimes.

Quentin Casey/For the Telegraph-Journal Tom Heintzman, president of Bullfrog Power, stands outside the Wooden Monkey restaurant in downtown Halifax, which uses the green electricity provider. The company, which touts itself as "Canada's 100 per cent green electricity provider," announced its move into the Maritime electricity market on Wednesday with a launch in Halifax.

Bullfrog, formed in 2005, allows home owners and businesses support renewable power producers in their region by paying extra for electricity.

Essentially, Bullfrog pumps enough renewable electricity into the local grid to match the power used by its customers.

So if you sign up with Bullfrog, the assumption is that all your power needs are covered by renewable sources.

Tom Heintzman, the company's president, compares the electrical grid to a bath tub. More wind and hydro power pumped into the system means less reliance on coal, oil and natural gas.

Bullfrog customers still pay their existing power provider, such as NB Power. They also pay Bullfrog to buy the more-expensive green energy from local generators.

According to Heintzman, customers end up paying about 20 per cent more for their power. But they get the satisfaction of knowing their power needs are covered by clean sources, he said.

"It's like organic food or hybrid vehicles - you give people a choice and you try to use market forces to increase the amount of renewable power," he said in an interview.

"There's no new equipment, there's no change-over cost and there's no change in the reliability."

Bullfrog Power is already available in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

The company serves more than 8,000 homes and 1,000 businesses - and is looking for more with its expansion into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. "It reveals what can happen when people show they are willing to pay a little bit more for power," Heintzman said.

"It feels like there's quite a bit of enthusiasm for renewable power in the Maritimes."

In the Maritimes, Bullfrog will draw its green power from wind farms and hydro facilities in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

In New Brunswick, the power will come from a small Irving-owned hydro facility in St. George.

Bullfrog mainly pays small operators for their green power, but also invests in some renewable projects. The idea, Heintzman said, is to keep demand for renewable energy high - so that more wind and hydro stations are needed.

According to Heintzman, several new wind projects have been commissioned in Canada to meet the demand of Bullfrog customers.

And a number of companies have already "bullfrogpowered" some or all of their operations.

For example: the Wooden Monkey, a restaurant and bar in downtown Halifax where Heintzman announced the Maritime launch.

And big firms are also on board.

On Wednesday, BMO Financial Group announced it will purchase Bullfrog electricity for all of its 64 Maritime facilities, making it the biggest user of Bullfrog Power in Atlantic Canada.

Over the past two years, BMO has bought Bullfrog power for 78 branches across Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.