more thoughts

[David Holmberg <david.holmberg@nist.gov>]

Some more thoughts on pricing:

We need price communicated like the sticker on a car on the car lot. Some
standard format for what information should be on the sticker, so the
consumer can select what they want. So, its not just a price, its many
variables, and the market needs to allow for the sale of electrcity based
on a variety of popular options. A utility may market a half dozen (or
infinite--you pick your flavor) varieties of power options to be
"green" or "wind" or "low-cost" or
whatever. We need a market where the customer can say what they want in
terms of a few variables and priority (price, carbon-content, generator
specific, power quality). I mention generator specific, because customers
may want to buy power from "that place", just like you want a
product from this vendor or that. We need an ID for each generator that
gets passed to the customer and allows the customer to go get more info
(like a website) on a generator. 

At the wholesale level there has to be a similar market. The ISO can't
just take bids based on price now. The ISO has to consider all the same
factors so as to meet the demands of the popular options. We might have
cheap coal, but if all the local utilities' customers want is green, then
I won't dispatch the coal plant. Or in other words, the bids have to
include a green value. 

So, what is the status of a standard for carbon value?

David

David Holmberg
NIST Building & Fire Research Lab
Building Environment Division, Mechanical Systems and Controls Group
100 Bureau Drive, Bldg. 226, Room B114, MS 8631, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8631
TEL: 301/975-6450   FAX: 301/975-8973