There were more than 112 million blogs as of March 2008 with new blogs being created at a rate of 175,000 per day and 1.6 million new blog posts per day according to Technorati, a blog tracking website.

How many of these are focused on energy, natural resources or commodities is anyone’s guess- but it is a big number.

And how has the blog caught on as a corporate communication tool in energy and utilities? UtiliPoint has observed a growing trend among software vendors in the space to add a blog to their website as well as among mainstream publishers and even some Utility companies.

This survey was conducted to establish just how much influence blogs have in the space and how important a tool they are becoming for corporate communications. The survey seems to demonstrate that blogs in the energy industry are beginning to gain in importance both as an information source and as a promotional device.

In the spring of 2007, UtiliPoint International, Inc. began a survey of European energy traders and utility companies with the objective of benchmarking and understanding their trading application and IT environment, application portfolio and levels of integration. In some respects, the study was similar to that conducted by UtiliPoint in North America in 2004. The survey did not ask about their ETRM software solution but rather the systems used around it and the levels of integration between them. The current study also looked at the IT architectures and infrastructure that support the broader trading business function.

This report provides a view of the levels of maturity of the different application areas around trading & risk management in Europe. For completeness, data has also been utilized from other UtiliPoint reports including the 2007 Benchmarking of European ETRM Software study, the North American survey referenced above and the 2005 North American Gas Company study.

The objective of this study was to broadly understand the use of weather forecast and weather data at energy companies including:

• - Assessment of the use of on staff meteorologists;
• - Types of meteorological data utilized and its relevance;
• - Users of weather forecasts and weather data inside an energy company; and,
• - Examination of how such services are procured by energy companies.
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During the month of October 2007, UtiliPoint International Inc. conducted a ‘snapshot’ electronic survey regarding the use of weather forecast and weather data by energy companies. The survey was distributed using the UtiliPoint IssueAlert email lists and 81 total responses were collected. This report outlines the results of the survey and provides some analysis of the use of weather forecast and weather data by energy companies.