Details, Details . . . The Impact of Market Rules on Emerging "Green" Energy Markets

Green power marketing is creating a customer-driven market for renewable energy resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower. Yet there are a number of "market barriers" to the creation of a workable green power market, and the ultimate success of retail markets for green power products will depend critically on the detailed "market rules" established at the onset of restructuring and on a number of "market facilitation" efforts. By surveying green power marketers and reviewing regulatory filings, this paper identifies and analyzes the types of restructuring market rules and market facilitation efforts that impact the competitive market for electricity services broadly, and the retail market for green power specifically. Taking a marketer perspective as our point of reference, we emphasize those rules and efforts that most effectively target key market barriers and that might be most successful in expanding the market for retail green power products. This information should help those interested in encouraging the development of the green power market during the early years of electricity restructuring.