Capturing green power for scope 2 location-based emissions reporting

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Many electricity suppliers offer renewable electricity products. When customers purchase renewable electricity from a supplier, they are purchasing bundled renewable energy certificates (RECs). The purchases do have a positive impact on the environment because they incentivize the generation of further renewable electricity. However, the GHG Protocol scope 2 guidance requires that when organizations provide location-based reporting, the calculation must use grid-average emission factors without including the offsetting effect of RECs.

To meet the requirement, IBM® Envizi ESG Suite has special functionality in the Electricity [kWh] data type. In certain account styles, a field is used to capture Green kWh in addition to standard grid kWh. The value that is captured in the Green kWh field is copied to the primary measure of the Electricity - Green [kWh] data type where negative grid-average electricity factors are available.

The configuration provides the following benefits:

The GHG Protocol scope 2 guidance requirement to calculate location-based emissions by using grid-average factors is satisfied because emissions from the Electricity [kWh] data type do not contain any emissions reductions from RECs.
Clients are able to net their scope 2 emissions by summing emissions from the Electricity [kWh] and Electricity - Green [kWh] data types in dashboards and reports.

Contact IBM support if your organization purchases green power and your electricity account style does not support the capture of renewable electricity.

Example 1: Purchasing 100% renewable electricity

An organization has purchased a green electricity product from its supplier. The invoice looks like the following example:

Account number: Elec_100green
Start date: 1 January 2024
End date: 31 March 2024
Quantity: 51,032 kWh
Green percentage: 100%

Table 1. Monthly data for sample renewable electricity account: Elec_100green_001
Month	Measure name	Amount (kWh)	Emission factor (kg CO2e/unit)	Emissions (kg CO2e)
2024-03	Green kWh*	17,384.53	-0.0742	-1,289.54
2024-03	Total kWh	17,384.53	0.0742	1,289.54
2024-02	Green kWh	16,262.95	-0.0742	-1,206.35
2024-02	Total kWh	16,262.95	0.0742	1,206.35
2024-01	Green kWh	17,384.53	-0.0742	-1,289.54
2024-01	Total kWh	17,384.53	0.0742	1,289.54

Note: *The Green kWh measure is stored in the Electricity - Green [kWh] data type but it is displayed in Electricity [kWh] accounts. Special functionality that is built into the monthly data grid enables this behavior only for green electricity.

Example 2: Purchasing 75% renewable electricity

The same organization has changed tariffs and now purchases 75% green electricity. The invoice looks like the following example:

Account number: Elec_75green
Start date: 1 April 2024
End date: 30 June 2024
Total kWh: 62,290 kWh
Green percentage: 75%
- Green electricity based on calculation: 46,717.5 Green kWh

Table 2. Monthly data for sample renewable electricity account: Elec_75green_002
Month	Measure name	Amount (kWh)	Emission factor (kg CO2e/unit)	Emissions (kg CO2e)
2024-06	Green kWh	15,401.37	-0.0742	-1,142.44
2024-06	Total kWh	20,535.16	0.0742	1,523.25
2024-05	Green kWh	15,914.75	-0.0742	-1,180.52
2024-05	Total kWh	21,219.67	0.0742	1,574.03
2024-04	Green kWh	15,401.37	-0.0742	-1,142.44
2024-04	Total kWh	20,535.16	0.0742	1,523.25

Green electricity in dashboards and PowerReports

Users can run dashboards or PowerReports to view their organization’s scope 2 and GHG reductions totals. Taking the two examples together, if a user reviews the period January - June 2024, they see the following totals:

Scope 2: 8,405.96 kg CO2e
GHG reductions: -7,250.83 kg CO2e
Net emissions: 1,155.13 kg CO2e

Note: Not all performance dashboards contain GHG reductions because of the nature of the data. To view GHG reductions, run the Performance by Scope or Emissions Performance dashboards, or run the monthly dataset PowerReport.

When is this configuration not appropriate?

Organizations can consume renewable energy in many forms. The previous configuration is appropriate only if the client purchases renewable energy from an electricity supplier. The configuration is not appropriate in the following circumstances. Instead, use the outlined solution.

Purchasing RECs that are unbundled from electricity: Capture certificates under a Certificates data type. For more information, see Allocating certificates.
Consuming renewable electricity from onsite generation, for example, solar panels: Capture the electricity consumption with an account style in the Electricity - Onsite Renewables [kWh] data type.
Consuming electricity through a purchase power agreement (PPA) where the supplier is providing a specific emission factor: Isolate the consumption in an account within a location that does not contain other electricity accounts. It might be necessary to create a custom region to separate the account from other regular grid electricity accounts. For more information, see Creating custom regions.