Automated Power Exchange (APX), an Internet trading firm that develops and operates power exchanges for electric energy, is pioneering wholesale renewable energy trades. APX operates markets in California and the Midwest and is expanding into New York, Washington State, and Ohio later this year.
In the “APX Green Power Market green generators can sell their power into the commodity energy market on a yearly basis by trading green tickets. This helps the industry meet real-time end-user demand from renewable energy sources; geothermal, wind, solar, small hydro, biomass, and landfill gas.
Renewable energy is traded as commodity energy that flows into the transmission grid and as a green ticket that represents the premium over and above the commodity price that buyers are willing to pay for the environmental benefits of this power. Says Ed Cazalet, CEO of APX, “Green tickets provide our customers with a simple way to lock in their prices for the green attribute up to a year in advance. For green power marketers, green tickets gives them the option to lock in their purchases. This also makes it easy for both baseload and intermittent generators to receive a green premium for every megawatt-hour they produce, since the number of green tickets they can sell are based on the plant’s meter readings.”
Since the APX Green Power Markets links seamlessly into conventional energy exchanges, buyers can trade any blend of green and “brown” power – up to 100% of either. Wholesale buyers can thus assemble a diversified portfolio of renewable energy supplies without contracting with multiple suppliers.
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