Acquisition Awards--General Services Administration: Right place, right time

By the mid-1990s, Pennsylvania had some of the highest energy rates in the country. To contain soaring electricity costs, lawmakers turned to deregulation, allowing consumers to shop around for the best energy rates by breaking up utility company monopolies. Like telephone and airline deregulation,

Unlike California, where deregulation has sparked an energy crisis, Pennsylvania has had success with deregulation. Before deregulation took effect in 1996, electricity rates in Pennsylvania were 15 percent above the national average; rates now are about 4.4 percent below the national average.

When it came to capitalizing on the benefits of deregulation, some entrepreneurial staffers at the General Services Administration's Mid-Atlantic office in Pennsylvania didn't want to leave anyone out in the cold. Deregulation provided GSA the perfect opportunity to save federal agencies a significant amount of money, according to Ken Shutika, an energy management specialist with the agency. In 1999, the office launched an acquisition strategy that so far has saved federal agencies and nonprofit organizations more than $14 million.