By DANIEL TAUB

Staff Reporter

When Brad Wilkins joined Tamco last March as chief financial officer of the Rancho Cucamonga metal manufacturer, one of his first tasks was to learn the ins and outs of power deregulation.

It was more than a theoretical exercise the aim was to help the company trim its annual $10 million power bill.

About six months later, Tamco signed a contract with New Energy Ventures, one of the companies that will sell power after deregulation. Wilkins expects Tamco, which makes reinforcing bars for buildings, to save about $500,000 a year under its deal.

Tamco is one of several California businesses that have switched to a new power provider in recent months. But the vast majority have not switched at least not yet.

“I’ve talked to other people, and this is a really, really new market, and there’s some apprehension,” Wilkins said. “People are very uncertain about how things are going to work out.”

Rosemead-based Southern California Edison Co. which serves nearly 428,000 commercial and industrial customers, including the entire portion of Los Angeles County not served by municipal utilities has received only about 3,100 “direct access service requests.” Each business location, such as a single restaurant in a chain, is required to file such a request with its pre-existing power provider prior to switching to a new provider.

Statewide, only about 15,300 such notifications have been filed by individual business locations switching to new power providers.

While the actual numbers are small, they represent some of the state’s largest businesses, including Allied Signal, Ralphs Grocery Co., Pacific Telesis Group, McDonald’s Corp. and Safeway Inc.

Other, smaller businesses are waiting on the sidelines.

The reason, according to energy consultants and others, is that the advantage of switching over, at least for now, is fairly limited for all but the large power users.

That’s because the state’s three investor-owned utilities doing business prior to deregulation Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric have four years to pay off their old debts so-called “stranded costs,” such as those related to old power plants.

Because the three companies will remain the power distributors even for customers that switch to new providers much of those costs will be passed on over the next four years.

“So the only thing you can get a bargain on is what is called the ‘energy’ part of your bill,” said Robert Michaels, an energy consultant and professor of economics at Cal State Fullerton. “You’ve still got to pay all the old charges.”

That means the only companies able to see big and immediate cost savings are those that use a significant amount of power.

Many of those energy-intensive businesses have signed up with New Energy Ventures, PG & E; Energy Services or Enron Energy Services. The three have emerged as the leading new providers of power in California.

Ari Swiller, a spokesman for Ralphs Grocery, would not disclose how much the company will save by switching 248 of its stores from Edison and San Diego Gas to New Energy Ventures, but he said the number is compelling.

“The savings were enough to make us want to change,” Swiller said.

Michaels said switching to a new provider makes sense for a company like Ralphs because of the large expense of operating freezers, refrigeration units and lighting in its stores.

But even Ralphs is only partially able to take advantage of deregulation.

Stores and other power customers located in the service area of a municipal utility such as L.A.’s Department of Water and Power and municipal providers in Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena are not yet able to choose alternate providers.

Energy consultants expect many more businesses to shop around for new power providers once the municipal utilities open up to competition as most are expected eventually to do.

In addition, Ralphs and several other companies have signed contracts that require their locations now being served by municipal utilities to switch over to the new power providers if and when the municipals are deregulated.

Even with the relatively small number of businesses that have changed providers, power companies say many businesses are actively exploring their options.

“We’re finding that they’re very interested in the opportunity to save, and that they’re very interested in seeing what we have to offer, and also what other power providers are offering,” said Diane Sable, spokeswoman for San Francisco-based PG & E; Energy Services.

And while most of the customers that have switched are large power users, the power providers are also targeting smaller users through trade groups.

Several trade groups throughout the state have signed up with a power provider to receive a group discount for member companies wishing to buy power from that particular provider.

The California Manufacturers Association, for example, has signed an agreement with Montana Power Trading and Marketing Co. Any of the CMA’s 980 member companies that sign a contract with Montana Power for at least two years will receive an 8 percent discount from the market rate for power.

CMA spokesman Jeff Gorell said only one company TRW Space & Electronics Group has so far signed up with Montana Power, but that another 25 to 30 CMA member companies are negotiating with the power company.

“We were able to do it for a couple of reasons,” Gorell said. “No. 1 is the power in numbers offered by CMA. We also gave Montana Power an entr & #233;e to the California market.”

Similarly, the Printing Industry Association of Southern California has signed up with New Energy Ventures. Association President Robert Lindgren said about 20 businesses in the 1,800-member group are participating, but 50 percent to 60 percent of the association’s members are served by municipal utilities, so they are not yet able to switch.

In addition, Lindgren said a large number of the association’s members are very small businesses, for which it is not yet worthwhile to switch to a new provider. “That cuts out part of the audience,” he said.