Few things are taken for granted as much as electricity. When you flip a switch something happens. There are no colors or features to select, no pros and cons to weigh. You use it, and once a month you pay for it.

All that will soon change. Starting in 1998, consumers in several states, including California and parts of New England, will be faced with choices about which company supplies their electricity, how much they pay for it and what additional services they may want. Deregulation of the electric utility industry has created new power marketers, including existing electric utilities. In many areas, consumers can expect lower prices.

However, not all marketers compete on price. A new industry is emerging that offers power with a lower environmental cost, even though the monetary price may be higher at first. They call it green power. Power marketers hope that some consumers feel so strongly about the negative environmental impacts of conventional electric generation that they vote with their dollars for less harmful energy sources. By choosing specific power sources, consumers would promote development of environmentally sustainable electricity. Some surveys--conducted most often by power companies--indicate a consumer preference for green power and even a willingness to pay a higher price for power from green sources.

Many Shades of Green

Each marketer uses its own definition of green. Green power comes from sources that reduce or eliminate:

• carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming
• sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen that pollute the air
• nuclear waste

Energy captured from solar, wind and geothermal sources fit everyone's description. Hydroelectric power shows up on many lists. However, hydro has critics who point to large dams that have decimated salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest and destroyed ecosystems across the continent. However, smaller hydro projects may have little impact on salmon and may not involve large habitat-destroying water impoundments. Natural gas is sometimes included as a green resource when the conventional power flows from massive coal or nuclear plants. With so many shades of green power it's important for consumers to know exactly which energy sources are in a potential power supplier's mix.

Even the greenest supplier will probably have to purchase some conventional power to meet peak demands or buy some "system" energy whose source is impossible to track.

The current energy system already contains a small percentage of these green resources. Some marketers argue that these existing resources can be labeled green and sold through the new green pricing programs. Green power purists disagree. They insist that only newly constructed green power projects should benefit from the premium prices paid by consumers. In addition, existing power sources--green or not--have already been included in existing rates.

Green Electrons?

How can you buy the power produced by a wind machine in Wyoming or a geothermal turbine in California? The electrical grid is huge and complex, so it may help to picture it as a large lake. Electric generators pour power into the lake. Homes and businesses draw power from the lake. Although you can't choose which electrons you take, you can influence the kinds of sources that fill the lake. In this way, green power programs hope to shift power supply toward less harmful sources.

Buying Green

Deregulation of the electricity industry means that your power supplier is no longer determined by your address. Like deregulation of the telephone industry, you will soon be bombarded with choices. Of course, the existing electric utility may have an advantage, but new marketers are gearing up to peddle power across the nation starting in 1998.

Many consumers are surprised to learn that electric generation accounts for only 20 to 30 percent of their power bill. The rest is distribution (wires, poles, transformers, etc.) and administration (billing, accounting, customer service, etc.). This reduces the impact of the higher cost to generate power from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and others.

Eco-Power, based in Oakland, claims their cost is equivalent to today's California prices. If deregulation cuts the cost of standard power by 10 percent as expected, that would leave Eco-Power about 10 percent above the market.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) offers two green power options. Under the renewable option, customers receive all their power from various renewable energy sources. The other option puts photovoltaic arrays on local buildings and sells that power to local customers. Both options add 1¢/kilowatt hour (kWh) to the electric rate.

Fort Collins Power and Light in Colorado has just begun selling power from two 750-kW wind turbines. Residential customers who wish to participate must buy all their power from the project for a 2¢/kWh premium over the standard 6¢/kWh rate.

Other utilities offer green power in blocks ranging in size from 100 to 1,000 kWh. Customers identify how many blocks they wish to purchase, then those blocks appear as separate entries on their bill with a different price.

Buyer Beware

Consumers don't think of power as a "product" with optional features and variable cost. Education will be critical to help the consumer make a good choice, especially where green power is concerned. The key issue is the "mix" of power or how much comes from which sources.

The Environmental Defense Fund promotes an energy labeling system similar to nutritional labels on food. The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) in California recently launched a certification program called "Green-e." Power suppliers may display the Green-e logo only after CRS has verified the renewable energy content of their power. Also, companies are required to abide by a code of conduct and provide customers with regular information about the energy they purchase.