Sustainability & Risk / Green Building /Carbon Footprint - Background Data

Adding Energy Grid Information

Electricity can be generated from a range of sources, such as coal, nuclear power or natural gas. Greenhouse Gas emissions from electricity depend on factors such as the fuel used to generate the electricity and the age of the plant. Energy grids provide the information necessary to compute green house gas emissions for electricity generated from particular areas.

Energy grids are comprehensive databases of the environmental attributes of electric power generation by location. Energy grids document the resource mix used to generate electricity by power plants and the location of the power plant. By doing so, these databases are able to provide the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted from specific amounts of electricity consumed.

Energy grids provide a measure of the weight of the following gases emitted per unit of electricity consumed:

• Carbon dioxide (CO₂)
• Methane (CH₄)
• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)

For example, for the eGRID energy grid database used in the US, the measurement of these gases is in pounds of greenhouse gas emitted per megawatt hour of electricity.

Use the Add Energy Grid Information task to enter:

• The source of data you are using to map your electricity use to greenhouse gas emissions
• Subreg
• ions defined in the protocol.
• Postal codes for your building locations and map them to subregions defined in your energy grid database.
• The greenhouse gas emissions calculated by the energy grid by location. The application uses this data to calculate a building's greenhouse gas emissions based on the consumption values entered using the Enter Building Footprint Data task.

If your buildings are located in countries that provide mapping of energy providers’ greenhouse gas outputs according to customers’ postal codes (like the eGRID system used in the USA), the system can automatically configure emissions factor information for purchased electricity based on buildings’ postal codes through the configurable Energy Grid data in the application.

Note: The energy grid information that ships with Archibus includes subregions and Zip Codes used to track electrical energy characteristics in the US. If the geographical locations you are tracking do not need this data, you can delete the eGRID version; this will also delete the GB eGRID Zip Codes table and the GB EPA eGRID Sub-Regions table.

To add energy grid information:

1. Select Carbon Footprint - Background Data / Energy Grid.

   The Define Energy Grid Versions, Subregions, and Zip form appears.

2. To add a new energy grid version:
   1. Click Add New in the Energy Grid Versions panel.
   2. Enter the following information:

      Version: Enter the unique identifier for this protocol for energy grid information.

      Version Description: Enter a description of this version, such as the year for the data in this protocol.

   3. Click Save.
3. To add subregions for an energy grid protocol:
   1. Select an energy protocol in the Energy Grid Versions panel.
   2. Click Add New in the Energy Grid Subregions panel.
   3. In the Energy Grid Subregion panel, enter the following information:

      Subregion Code: Enter a unique identifier for the subregion.

      Subregion Name: Enter a name to identify the subregion. To select an existing value for the subregion name, mouse over the Subregion Name and use the Select Value button to select the name from the values that have already been defined. You can edit the value if needed. You can also manually enter the name in the form.

      Carbon Dioxide: Enter the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per the units used by your protocol.

      CO₂ Units: Select the units used to measure CO₂ in your protocol.

      Methane (CH₄):  Enter the amount of methane emitted per the units used by your protocol.

      CH₄_N₂O Units: Select the units used to measure methane and nitrous oxide in your protocol.

      Nitrous Oxide (N₂O): Enter the amount of nitrous oxide emitted per the units used by your protocol.

   4. Click Save.
4. To add a postal code for a subregion:
   1. In the Energy Grid Subregions panel, click the Postal Codes button in the row for the subregion you want to add postal codes for.
   2. In the Postal Codes panel, click Add New.
   3. In the Postal Code panel, enter the Postal Code, State, and City for the new postal code.
   4. Click Save.