New Power Holdings, the struggling energy marketing company created by Enron Corp., has stopped signing up new customers nationally, including in Cincinnati.

        And those Cincinnati-area residents who now get their power from New Power under Ohio's 17-month-old Electric Choice program could find themselves as customers of Cinergy Corp. in the near future.

        A spokeswoman said New Power, which began offering electric power in Cincinnati in February 2001, is evaluating a range of options, including exiting some markets.

        “We're looking at a host of possibilities, including reducing the markets we serve,” Gael Doar, New Power spokeswoman, said. “I'm not in a position to say which at this point.”

        In a federal filing last month, New Power, whose shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange, said it might not survive beyond the end of June, after a planned sale of the company collapsed.

        The company, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it was considering asset sales, reducing operations to fewer markets or liquidating.

        New Power is the only company offering electric service to residential customers in Cinergy's Southwest Ohio service area under Ohio's Electric Choice program. If New Power drops out of this market, Cinergy Electric would be required by the law to take them back.

        Steve Brash, Cinergy spokesman, said the parent of Cincinnati Gas & Electric, hasn't been told of New Power's plans.

        New Power had about 300,000 electric customers in four states at the end of last year, but Ms. Doar didn't know how many it has in Cincinnati.

        According to the latest report from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, about 1,800 residential electric customers of Cinergy had switched electric suppliers at the end of last year.

        When it began marketing in Cincinnati a year ago, New Power offered a kilowatt per hour rate that was about .07 of a penny less than Cinergy's.

        In the wake of Enron's collapse, Purchase, N.Y.-based New Power has been sued by shareholders who claim the company issued misleading statements about its relationship to Enron, its largest shareholder.

        Centrica Plc, the United Kingdom's largest natural gas supplier, terminated its $133 million purchase of New Power in late March, after a U.S. bankruptcy judge refused to release Centrica from any liability for Enron's taxes.

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