On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the first quarter of 2018. This letter focuses on a change taking place in the energy market and its impact on our clients. Historically, energy procurement was separated from facility operations. A procurement team and/or an advisor worked with competitive retail suppliers to manage commodity prices. In parallel, engineers worked with an operations team to reduce energy consumption. Today, large energy users can no longer approach energy procurement and facilities management as separate and distinct tasks – a cost effective energy management strategy must integrate facilities management and procurement. In this letter we discuss some of the factors that have driven this change and the importance of integrating procurement and energy management.

On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the final quarter of 2017. I began our last quarter’s letter with a discussion of the correlation between extreme weather and energy prices. I noted that since the extreme cold in the Northeast in 2013/2014, and the extreme heat in Texas in 2011, the energy market had not been tested to see how it would respond to extreme weather. Consider the market tested: the chart below tells the story.

On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the third quarter of 2017. For many years, the energy market has seen a direct correlation between extreme weather events, high electricity prices, and regulatory changes. Q3 was different. It set records for extreme weather, but we did not see a corresponding increase in energy prices. Still we saw significant regulatory changes tied in part to weather events. In October, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, citing recent storms, announced new rules to compensate coal and nuclear plants for their ability to operate through adverse weather events. This letter focuses on the relationship between weather, energy prices and regulatory change.

On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the second quarter of 2017. In our Q1 letter, we focused on how new technologies, particularly solar and wind generation, are transforming the power market and causing negative power prices in California. In this quarter’s letter, we focus on an old generation technology, nuclear power.

On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the first quarter of 2017. This quarter marks 5’s fifth anniversary. While I try to avoid marketing in this letter, I cannot help but mention our most recent award, being named the 2nd best place to work in the State of Texas. When added to our other awards, this speaks to the unique company we are all building at 5.

On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the last quarter of 2016. The most important policy development in Q4 was the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. Mr. Trump was elected on a platform that promised energy independence, increased drilling of oil and natural gas, and an end to the war on coal. While other events might be overshadowed by the election, a review of recent energy developments question the impact of the Federal Government on the energy market. In fact, state policy and changes in energy technology may have a greater impact on the energy market than who holds control of the executive office. A few recent market developments are summarized below.

On behalf of the team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the third quarter of 2016. Before turning to our discussion of general market developments, I’d like to highlight an important trend shown in our technical energy charts. Our market guru, Eric Plateis, built proprietary analytical tools to forecast the future direction of electricity and natural gas prices. Below is Eric’s chart of the Henry Hub rolling prompt month price of natural gas (the next month in the year) from late July to today.

On behalf of the entire team at 5, I am pleased to forward our market letter for the second quarter of 2016. Q2 marks the end of a long period of relatively flat and/or decreasing electricity and natural gas prices. The recent reversal is well represented by the following chart, which shows how prompt month natural gas has traded over the past 6 months.

I am pleased to forward the first issue of Volume 5 of 5’s Quarterly Market Letter. The energy market remained relatively flat in Q1 and continues to trade at or near historically low levels. The chart below shows how little natural gas prices ¹ have changed in the first three months of 2016. As noted below, the price of natural gas for the month of May 2016 and calendar years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were almost the same at the end of March as they were at the beginning of January.

I am pleased to forward 5’s fourth quarter overview of the energy market. This issue focuses on two topics that were particularly significant in 2015. The first is the continued decline of the price of natural gas and electricity. While the price decline creates an opportunity for energy buyers, it is also accelerating the shift in generation from coal to natural gas. If continued, this shift should put upward pressure on natural gas and electricity prices. The second topic is the increasingly complex international, federal and state regulations that impact renewable energy development, and in particular, how these shifting regulations could impact on-site generation projects. The shifting regulatory landscape underscores the importance of fully understanding the utility tariff structure and potential regulatory risk before investing in an on-site renewable project.