Overview
The Electrical Market has gone through some huge changes in the last two decades.
- Since 2000 the Inertia (Weight of the electrical system) on the electrical grid has dropped by around 50%
- Renewable generation has grown from 2.8% to 40% (obviously this changes day to day)
These 2 facts alone have changed completely how the electrical system works.
So What has Changed?
We have come from a time where electricity flowed one way. Power station to your house/office then to the kettle!
Those days are now behind us.
With far more generation connected to peoples houses and businesses and the removal of coal fired power stations, the make up of where we get our electricity comes has shifted. We are slowly moving to a far more decentralised system.
Non of this is particularly new or ground breaking anyone who has read any article on renewable energy knows this is the way the UK has been going for years.
What Does this Change Effect?
Well that depends…
If you are a household there are now multiple electrical suppliers offering savings Octopus, British Gas and EON to name just a few you are willing to offer incentives to customers turn down/off your house electrical demand during peak hours.
Whilst all this incredible work by countless thousands of people from Solar designers and installers to Distribution Network/System Operators to Government, has been undertaken in the last few decades the reporting standards for emissions are still very archaic.
For companies there has always been incentives to turn off during peak hours, any good energy manager will tell you about the days of the beloved Triads. But this has changed now to, thanks to the Targeted Charging Review brought in by OFGEM in 2023.
But… Carbon Reporting Hasn’t kept up
While most the energy system works on a extremely granular approach, with an extreme amount of accuracy, much of the emissions reporting process has been left behind.
Most companies will simply look at how much electricity they have used that year and multiply by a carbon factor to get their Location Based Emissions. (We will talk about Market Based Emissions in a different post. )
This simplification does however cause issues.
Mainly over reporting of Emissions.
Shifting to a more granular approach unlocks:
- More accurate carbon reporting. (This typically causes a reduction in the stated emissions of the organization.)
- Unlocking of revenue streams – Through highlighting demand-shifting opportunities.
- Reduction in carbon offsets. Reducing your location-based emissions can help reduce the amount of carbon offset purchases a company makes.
Some companies are over reporting their scope 2 emissions by a staggering 60%
In Conclusion
A significant amount of work has/is being done by countless thousands of people to enable a Net Zero electrical grid, and whilst we are nowhere near complete on this yet. Old and outdated reporting methodologies and processes are holding us back.
This is having a knock-on effect. On people’s perception and companies reports.
With more accurate reporting methodologies like the ones used ,by companies like us at Emissions Intelligence, we better represent the truth.
Emissions Intelligence 