“Reverse energy,” a concept that better weighs energy supply against consumer demand, was entered in a proposal to General Electric’s (GE) Ecomagination Challenge by Reverse Auction Research Center Director Dr. David Wyld and Maurin Professor of Management.

Wyld explained that he saw the opportunity to merge his work in reverse auctions with the developments emerging in energy markets today, allowing individual energy consumers to both save money and choose how much they value the price over the “greenness” of their energy.

“If nothing else, you would have the option to say, ‘I wanna buy the cheapest electricity possible. I don’t care about clean energy, I just want the good old coal plan,'” said Wyld. “The bottom line is you could save quite a bit like that, but the twist to what I’m doing is that I’m adding an element to where you can specify ‘I want a certain percent of my electricity to come from clean energy providers,’ and by doing so, you might save however much percent.”

Wyld explained that behind his fifty-word proposal posted online is a combinatorial auction, which is based on more than one dimension. In this case, the consumers bid on price and specify what they want to buy, how important it is for their energy to come from an environmentally friendly source and other potential factors.

“You could even promote ‘I’m gonna buy electricity from Louisiana providers,'” said Wyld. “So you could not only be green, but you could promote the local industry base as well.”

The proposal allows consumers to choose to buy from companies or people that have invested in forms of clean energy. Even if prices for cleaner energy sources may be higher than traditional energy sources, the environmental benefits are significant, and the purchasing of clean energy aids in a faster general conversion to these environmentally friendly sources.

“It’s an appropriate solution to give consumers power to choose their energy providers and for electrical power providers to compete to make green energy more available and more affordable for the growing numbers of consumers who find themselves with the right to choose their energy providers,” stated Wyld in a Sept. 27 Public Info press release.

According to their Web site, www.challenge.ecomagination.com/ideas, “GE’s Ecomagination Challenge is an open call for businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students seeking breakthrough ideas to create a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable grid, and accelerate the adoption of smart grids technologies.”

“One reason I got involved is because I do a lot of Web stuff anyway, and I liked the idea that they were getting input from anyone and everyone,” said Wyld. “There were Ph.D.s and engineers, but there were also just folks – college students, retired engineers and military – people from all walks of life. So do I stand a chance? I don’t know, but it’s based on the quality of the idea.”

The competition consists of two rounds. In the first round, which took place from July 13 until Sept. 30, the general public voted on ideas considered to be most favorable. However, GE will make the final decision. In the second round, which takes place from Oct. 1 until Nov. 30, GE will reveal (in late October) which proposals they are going to pursue commercial relationships with, and announce (in November) any business deals that have been determined.

“I’ll be surprised if GE calls to talk further on this, but I won’t be shocked,” said Wyld. “The next round is when they get serious on investigating the proposals and how they will allocate the funding to make the proposal become a business concept.”

Wyld began the final day ranked 125th and finished in 60th place, placing him in the top two percent. Considering the approximate 3,550 proposals entered and the fact that Wyld did not learn of the competition until mid-September, he acquired great results.

“I was starting late and catching up,” said Wyld. “So I feel all the better about that, but I also started way behind because I didn’t find out until there were two weeks left in the contest. If I would’ve found out about it earlier, I would’ve tried to get students involved, just for the sake of getting their ideas out there and getting a company started based on this.”

The selected ideas will be allocated a share of the $200 million capital pledge of GE and its partners. Wyld said that if his proposal is not chosen, he will continue to be active in it one way or another, through research and consulting.

“It provides some recognition for the college and university as a whole, because to place that high in an international competition is quite an honor in itself,” said Wyld.