Disclosing environmental attributes to stimulate "Green power" marketing

For utilities in deregulated states, the issue of customer choice takes on an added dimension. Customers concerned about the quality of their local environment-or more specifically, the perceived harm being done to their current electricity supplier-now have a new reason to consider another supplier. The aim of this paper is to propose the disclosure of suitable environmental performance indicators provided during energy market transactions with kWh cost of the generation. An indicator, which describes synthetically the environmental impact relative to energy production is proposed in this paper for industrial customers, It is shown how the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology can provide such an indicator. Open problems about the implementation of an electricity market where environmental attributes are disclosed are also addressed.