With

winter's chill just around the corner, many residents are

gathering firewood and breaking out the sweaters to ward

off the chill.

Another key

component of staying warm this winter and many natural

gas consumers are hoping the transition from Peachtree

Natural Gas to Shell Energy goes smoothly, so they won't

have the need for more firewood and heavier sweaters.

Last week,

Coweta-Fayette EMC president Michael Whiteside sent a

letter to the company's nearly 20,000 gas customers

informing them of the switch in marketers to Shell

Energy.

The switch

occurred after Peachtree Natural Gas declared bankruptcy

Oct.26 and Shell purchased Peachtree's 171,000 customers

for more than $19 million.

Peachtree

Natural Gas was the marketer of choice for many

municipalities and companies, such as EMC,Peachtree City,

Coweta County and the Coweta County Board of Education.

In his

letter to his customers, Whiteside said the customers

will receive a start bill from Shell within 30 days, but

will still have e option of switching to another marketer

without having to pay a $7.50 switch fee.

Since

Peachtree Natural Gas went bankrupt in October, EMC

officials have been trying to find another marketer to

list as a preferred provider, but have not been able to

do so yet, said Whiteside.

Despite not

be able to provide another marketer, Whiteside said he

was happy to have been able to provide discounts to his

customers during the past nine months and providing free

gas during the summer.

If you want

to use Shell Energy as your provider, you won't have to

do anything. Shell Energy will send you a welcoming lit

in the next few days.

Customers

who want to switch can choose among 12 marketers. The

Georgia Public Service Commission maintains a monthly

update of the marketers and how many complaints they

receive.

The

following is a list of the certified providers and how

many complaints each company received per 10,000

customers:

-GasKey-45.14,

404-321-5711.

-e

prime, Inc.-20.28, 1-800-229-4277.

-Shell

Energy Service-16.14, 1-888-350-7435.

-Energy

America-15.75, 1-888-305-3828.

-Southeastern

States Energy-13.13, 1-877-477-3674.

-United

Gas Management of Georgia-12.06, 1-888-427-4872.

-Infinite

Energy, Inc.-5.67, 770-394-3357.

-Columbia

Energy Services Corporation-5.26, 1-888-224-6622.

-Reliant

Energy Retail-4.36, 1-800-826-7401.

-Georgia

Natural Gas Services, Inc.-3.64, 1-888-878-3250.

-ACN

Energy, Inc.-3.12, 1-877-226-3049.

-SCANA

Energy Marketing, Inc.-2.77, 1-877-467-2202.