New Transpower Tool Unlocks Electricity Emissions Tracking For All

Transpower’s specialist metering and market services business Energy Market Services (EMS) today launched a new service and dashboard to track the real time carbon emissions intensity of the electricity system.

The carbon emissions tracker unlocks the potential for retailers to provide every electricity consumer, from residential the largest industrial users, an accurate record of electricity related emissions based on how much power they consumed and when. The emissions tracker is published on EMS’ market information dashboard ‘em6’ (https://app.em6.co.nz/). The em6 service is an information exchange that provides access to near real time market information. Historic New Zealand emissions information is also available via the em6 subscription, which customers will be interested in for their monthly reporting processes.

Richard Hobbs, Transpower’s General Manager Strategy and Customer says, “As part of meeting New Zealand’s net-zero carbon goals, emissions tracking is a critical input. We are uniquely placed to provide these key insights and metrics via the em6 platform, to understand the current position and track progress over time.

“Electricity emissions change every half hour based on the generation mix and demand. Sometimes this is highly renewable, while other times there is more gas, or even coal, in the mix. With our new tracker, not only can all consumers see the carbon intensity of the electricity system in real time, if they have a smart meter, their supplier could also calculate their electricity emissions per half hour and give them a total for each billing period.”

The system works by using real time production data from every grid-connected generator in the country and multiplying that by each generator’s specific carbon emissions factor. The emissions factor changes by generation type, its fuel type and efficiency. For generation systems capable of using different fuels, the tool takes into account the specific fuel type being used each half hour.

Electricity emissions change throughout the day, by season and in response to other factors such as fuel availability (for example, water, wind, sunshine, gas or coal).

“Generally speaking, New Zealand’s electricity system uses a high percentage of renewable fuels. This is backed up with some thermal fuels at different times of the year. With the carbon emissions tracker, consumers of all sizes can see when emissions are higher or lower, which may help them shift their consumption to lower their emissions.

“Electricity providers could use the tracker to provide consumers with their electricity related emissions. This is good news for those that want to track, minimise, offset or report their actual emissions,” Mr Hobbs says.

The new em6 dashboard also features a Generator Weighted Average Price (GWAP) graph to provide better insight into the trend and value of electricity generation by fuel type across the country. A more detailed GWAP screen is to be launched soon as part of the em6 subscription services.

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