CONSUMER UPDATE

October 2007 Consumer Newsletter

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

• Buy Electricity Only When You Want It?
• GM NOTES
• FCC CHANGES FOR CABLE TV
• Meet the Board: Donald Bolin
• Do You Know?
• GEUS Scholarship Award

Buy Electricity Only When You Want It?

In the fast paced world of the 21st century, GEUS realized that the electric metering systems used for the past 117 years may not be the best program for everyone. In searching for an optional metering program, GEUS came up with emPOWER, a self-managed electric purchasing program that allows you to "pay as you go." This type of metering has been used in Europe for many years. It dates back to a time when people would put coins in their electric meters to purchase power similar to how parking meters work. It is much more sophisticated now.

emPOWER allows GEUS technicians to place an electronic meter on your home. After the meter is set, you will
be given a customer information unit (CIU). This is plugged into any 110 volt outlet inside your home. The CIU will
communicate with the meter letting you know the amount of power you have used and have left. When you decide you need more power, simply bring the emPOWER card to one of our offices or kiosk to revalue the card. The emPOWER card will reflect the same competitive rates as all GEUS meters. When the revalued emPOWER card is placed back in the CIU, it will show the credit of the new amount.

An ATM-type kiosk is located in the Public Safety Building at 3000 Lee St. to provide consumers around the clock service to revalue the emPOWER card.

So why do people want to use the emPOWER program? The answer is simple. emPOWER allows users to save money. With approximately 100 Greenville residents on the programs, we have discovered that many people save money because emPOWER allows you to see how much electricity your home uses on a daily basis. It also has no late fees or disconnects fees.

In the short time GEUS has been offering emPOWER, it has been proven that Greenville residents enjoy the program.

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR ELECTRIC USAGE TODAY WITH emPOWER!!!

For more information on emPOWER please call 903.457.2800 or
stop by 6000 Joe Ramsey Blvd or 2821 Washington.
This is an optional program.

GM Notes

Many changes are occurring in the electric business in Texas. Let me tell you about
a few of the changes and what we are doing to prepare at GEUS.

First, as a result of the northeast blackout of 2003 which resulted in an outage to 50
million customers, the federal government passed laws to enforce reliability. With
authority granted by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC"), the North
American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") has adopted 83 mandatory and
enforceable reliability standards that went into effect on June 18, 2007. NERC has
delegated monitoring and enforcement authority to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ("ERCOT") for electric utilities in Texas.

GEUS has been delving into the 83 standards to make sure that we are in compliance. Rick Gillean, with an extensive background in transmission and distribution operations, was hired earlier in the year and has been assigned with the responsibility of ensuring GEUS' compliance with the reliability standards. In fact, as I am writing these comments, Rick and other key staff members are undergoing our first compliance audit.

Our local reliability has improved dramatically over the last few years. In fact, 2006 was a record year for reliability (see chart) since we have been tracking statistics. We know that reliability is important to our consumers and we intend to continue to focus on maintaining and improving reliability.

Second, since January 1st of this year, GEUS has been managing our own power supply operation. For the last ten years, we have been operating under a pooling arrangement with Garland Power and Light. Since the electric market in Texas has matured over the last few years, the advantages of a pooling arrangement have diminished. By making local power purchasing decisions, GEUS has been able to save significantly in purchased power costs. These savings have been passed along to consumers through reduced fuel adjustment costs.

And lastly, the wholesale electric market in Texas is in the process of undergoing a major change. The current wholesale market, which is a Zonal market, will change to a Nodal market in January 2009. There are many new procedures and risks that must be managed in a Nodal market. Our technical and operations staff is in the process of reviewing the changes and receiving training in the new procedures.

While we are dealing with multiple changes in the electric business, we continue to focus on providing service that is reliable, competitively priced, and responsive to your needs. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.

FCC CHANGES FOR CABLE TV

What is with all this talk about the changes going on in the television industry? Are my TVs going to quit working?

How did we get to where we are today and where are we headed? Many of us grew up watching ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX in later years. These networks tuned in on our home's antenna or even rabbit ears and the quality of the picture varied depending upon many things such as the distance you live from the tower in the closest metropolitan area. These were called "off air" channels. TV was free as the government allowed these networks to use public airwaves to broadcast their signal.

The cable TV industry developed with cable operators erecting towers in communities. These operators would capture, clean and then send these signals, including UHF, to our homes through coaxial cable. Leo Hackney developed the first cable operation in Greenville in the late 1960's which offered 12 channels.

Channel offerings increased industry-wide when programmers began broadcasting their signals by way of satellite to the cable operators.

The next major change to the industry came about seven years ago as cable operators began deploying digital cable TV and high speed cable modem Internet. Digital cable TV allowed operators to squeeze more channels into that coaxial cable entering your home. This was most evident in the number of premium channels offered such as HBO. Many systems such as GEUS now offer as many as 13 HBO channels as opposed to the one channel offered for many years. Through this technology, GEUS now makes over 250 channels available to Greenville citizens.

We are fast approaching the next phase of the evolutionary process of the cable TV industry. In early 2008, broadcasters will no longer be allowed to use a portion of the public airwaves as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has plans to auction it off for other uses. Antennae or rabbit ears will no longer be effective on older TVs unless it has a digital receiver of some type.

GEUS has been aware of this for some time and preparing for this to happen. Rest assured that your cable and Internet service with GEUS will not be affected and you will continue to get the quality of service you have come to expect. The new format in which GEUS will receive programming will allow even more efficient use of its equipment and infrastructure, thus allowing the addition of more high definition channels in the coming years.

Meet the Board:

Donald E. Bolin is a retired General Partner/Investment Representative of the New York
Stock Exchange member firm of Edward Jones. His employment with Edward Jones was from July, 1967 to March, 2002. Positions with the firm were many including Investment representative in Greenville, regional leader for 6 states, director of insurance operations, southwest hiring coordinator, and General Partner.

Don is or has been on the boards of: College for Financial Planners, Greenville Schools, City Parks, Hunt Memorial Hospital District Charitable Health Foundation, F L Young Foundation, Chamber of Commerce, Wesley United Methodist Church, and Greenville Ambassadors. Other affiliations have been with the Institute for Financial Planning, the National Association of Security Dealers, and the International Association of Financial Planners.

A graduate of the University of Miami in 1963 with a major in Finance and a minor in Economics, Don joined the Air Force via the ROTC program at Miami. During his Air Force career, he rose to the rank of Captain and served four years as an Accounting & Finance officer and a Budget officer for the Air Defense Command.

Don and his wife, Linda, were both born and raised in Springfield, Illinois and moved to Greenville in January of 1968. They have been married for 41 years and have two children: Joy Hosey, who is a homemaker; and a son, Bill, who is a photographer in Dallas. They have one grandchild, Mallory Carol Hosey.

Do You Know?

GEUS has 24 hour tech support to assist with Internet problems.

Reach tech support on their new number 866-467-9794 or

Let tech support answer your questions about email routers networks and more!

GEUS Scholarship Award

Bennett Johnson, a 2007 graduate of GHS, is the recipient of the GEUS scholarship.

He will attend the University of Texas at Austin where he plans to enter the McCombs School of Business and major in the 'Business Route to Engineering'.

More Variety & More Video on GEUS Cable TV