First Choice Power Selects SoftSmiths Market-ERCOT

Houston, TX. – January 21, 2010 – SoftSmiths, Inc., a leading energy software solutions and services company, today announced that First Choice Power, one of Texas' largest retail electric provider, selected SoftSmiths Market-ERCOT to streamline its wholesale power scheduling and settlement operations in the ERCOT market. SoftSmiths next-generation system enables First Choice Power to be ready for the Texas Nodal Market implementation.

SoftSmiths Market-ERCOT provides ERCOT market participants the scheduling and settlement functionality to automatically submit trades information to ERCOT and identify discrepancies in ERCOT charges thereby reducing reconciliation activities. With SoftSmiths e-Link Application Programming Interface (API), seamless integration with Energy Trading and Scheduling systems can be established.

To support its retail operations, First Choice Power participates in ERCOT wholesale market as a Qualified Scheduling Coordinator (QSE) to submit energy schedules, bids and settle payments with ERCOT. Based in Las Colinas, Texas, and a subsidiary of PNM Resources, First Choice Power is an electricity provider that has been licensed since 2001, with ties to a 70 year heritage of working with Texas consumers and communities.

"We looked for a system that would integrate well with our existing trading systems and were impressed with the capabilities of the SoftSmiths Market-ERCOT solution,” said Eric Plateis, Vice President Portfolio Risk Management at First Choice Power. "It improves efficiency of our QSE operations and better supports power supply management and settlement in a Nodal market with higher transaction volumes.”

"We are extremely pleased to welcome this new high-profile customer to our family of SoftSmiths users," said Hugo Stappers, Director of Sales and Marketing at SoftSmiths. "The combined SoftSmiths Market-ERCOT and SoftSmiths e-Link solution provides a critical application to support First Choice Power's participation in ERCOT and meet its operational requirements for the upcoming Nodal market".

About SoftSmiths

SoftSmiths, Inc. delivers critical electronic energy trading and operations solutions and services that enable energy industry participants to enhance profitability and reliability in the competitive marketplace. SoftSmiths' proven solutions and in-depth knowledge of the industry's business practices allow its customers to automate manual processes, eliminate redundancies, and increase business visibility across the enterprise to allow faster decision making and more informed decisions, thereby improving profitability, operational efficiencies and cash flow. The company has been successfully delivering e-business solutions to energy service companies since 1997.

About First Choice Power

Based in Las Colinas, Texas, First Choice Power is one of Texas' largest retail electric providers. It is a subsidiary of PNM Resources, an investor-owned energy holding company that also owns TNMP. For more information, visit www.FirstChoicePower.com.

SoftSmiths is a registered trademark of SoftSmiths, Inc. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contact Information:

SoftSmiths Inc.
Hugo Stappers
Phone:    713.626.9184
Fax:          713.626.0186
Email:      mkt@softsmiths.com
Website:  www.softsmiths.com

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