Hourly-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity – Possibilities for Households and Companies to Decrease Their Emissions

32 Pages Posted: 25 Apr 2014

See all articles by Maria Kopsakangas-Savolainen

Maria Kopsakangas-Savolainen

Finnish Environment Institute; University of Oulu - Department of Economics, Accounting and Finance

Maija Mattinen

Government of the Republic of Finland - Finnish Environment Institute

Kaisa Manninen

Government of the Republic of Finland - Finnish Environment Institute

Ari Nissinen

Government of the Republic of Finland - Finnish Environment Institute

Date Written: March 19, 2014

Abstract

The various emissions, including GHG emissions, from electricity production are a crucial part of environmental impact assessments of any kinds of products, services and consumption. Usually average annual emissions are used, but electricity market has lately increased interest in daily-based and hourly-based emission coefficients for electricity. In such markets, where technology mixture of the production includes technologies with widely different emission factors, there is potential for large variation in hourly based emission factors and consequently this offers potential for decreasing GHG emissions by efficient real-time based demand management. In this paper, we determine hourly based GHG emission factors and give examples how GHG emissions may be decreased in households and companies by changing the use patterns, and consequently timing of electricity use, the total amount of electricity consumption being unchanged. Electricity production in Finland, as well as the electricity consumption in Finnish households and companies are used as the cases. The examples from households and companies indicate the potential of managing hourly based demand loads and resulting GHG emissions. So far hourly-based emission coefficients have not been used (at least in significant amounts) in demand management in order to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change.

Keywords: hourly-based emission factors; demand side management; electricity markets

Suggested Citation

Kopsakangas-Savolainen, Maria and Mattinen, Maija and Manninen, Kaisa and Nissinen, Ari, Hourly-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity – Possibilities for Households and Companies to Decrease Their Emissions (March 19, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2411425 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2411425

Maria Kopsakangas-Savolainen (Contact Author)

Finnish Environment Institute ( email )

PO Box 413
Oulu, 90014
Finland

University of Oulu - Department of Economics, Accounting and Finance ( email )

PO Box 4600
FIN-90014 University of Oulu
Finland

Maija Mattinen

Government of the Republic of Finland - Finnish Environment Institute ( email )

00260 Helsinki
Finland

Kaisa Manninen

Government of the Republic of Finland - Finnish Environment Institute ( email )

00260 Helsinki
Finland

Ari Nissinen

Government of the Republic of Finland - Finnish Environment Institute ( email )

00260 Helsinki
Finland

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