Tag: Locational Marginal Emissions

White Paper: Charging Towards Zero

Posted on August 7, 2023 by - Blog, White Paper

Harnessing Batteries and Carbon Contracts to Accelerate Grid Decarbonization, authored by Tierra Climate in partnership with REsurety

This paper examines the economic carbon impact of compensating batteries for carbon reduction using detailed electricity emissions data and a carbon contract. Carbon contracts with grid-scale batteries might provide corporations with an elegant solution to meet sustainability targets and decarbonize the electricity grid, which cannot be accomplished through renewable energy purchases alone.

In partnership with REsurety, the paper leverages REsurety’s Locational Marginal Emissions dataset as part of the calculating mechanism.

Download the paper

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Blog Post: CAISO Isn’t Just One More Market

Posted on August 1, 2023 by - Blog

David Luke Oates
Author: David Luke Oates
SVP of Power Markets Research

REsurety’s customers buy, sell, and invest in clean energy across the country and around the world. To provide our customers with financial and carbon value insights across their full geographic scope, we have been working to expand the coverage of our Weather-Smart forecasts. We are pleased to announce that with our recent Q2 2023 Weather-Smart release, we now provide forecasts in CAISO as well as ERCOT and PJM. 

CAISO isn’t just one more market: it is an indicator of what is coming across the country. With an aggressive clean energy policy regime and strong solar resource, solar penetration in CAISO1 started growing early and is now the highest in the country. In 2022, solar penetration in CAISO was 28%, compared to 6% in ERCOT and 2.5% in PJM. But solar installations are now accelerating across the U.S. The changes CAISO witnessed in the last decade are in many ways a test case for what asset owners across the country can expect as solar penetrations grow.

The well-known LMP2 duck curve highlights an important implication of increasing solar penetration. Historically, prices tended to be high in the middle of the day due to high demand for electricity and the need to run more expensive peaking generators to meet that demand. However, as solar penetration grows, zero marginal cost solar generation is increasingly available during mid-day hours, leading to a decline in daytime prices. Peak price hours shift to the morning and early evening, when demand remains high, but solar output is low. This change in diurnal price profile has a material impact on the value of solar generation assets.

Figure 1 shows the evolution of the CAISO duck curve as solar penetration has increased over time. In 2012, solar penetration in CAISO was very low, the market did not display a duck curve, and the solar capture rate was well above 100%. By 2019, solar penetration had reached 20% and the lowest priced hours were at mid-day, with notable spikes in the morning and evening. Solar capture rate had fallen to 69%.

ERCOT is in the early stages of a similar evolution. Solar penetration in ERCOT in 2017 was insignificant, there was no discernible duck curve, and the capture rate was 117%. ERCOT hasn’t yet reached a 20% solar penetration, but by using REsurety’s Weather-Smart system, we can forecast what might happen when it does. In our Baseline scenario, ERCOT reaches 20% solar in 2031. Prices display a strong duck curve and the capture rate falls to 56%.

LMP duck curve, solar penetration, and solar capture rate in CAISO and ERCOT at 0% and 20% solar penetration.
Figure 1: LMP duck curve, solar penetration, and solar capture rate in CAISO and ERCOT at 0% and 20% solar penetration.
Notes: Y-axis represents the average price for each local-time hour divided by the annual average price. ERCOT prices reflect North hub real-time prices. CAISO prices reflect SP15 hub real-time prices. 2031 ERCOT forecast based on REsurety Weather-Smart system Q2-2023 release, Baseline scenario, averaged across all weather conditions. X-axis shows “hour-beginning” time. Capture rates reflect modeled hourly ISO-average generation profiles. Solar penetration reflects the combination of grid-scale and behind-the-meter solar generation.

Increasing solar penetration also has an impact on the carbon abatement value of clean energy. In the LMP duck curve, daytime solar output drives low or zero marginal cost resources to the margin, reducing power prices. But in addition to low costs, these now-marginal resources often also have low or zero emissions rates3. Under these conditions, additional clean energy during daytime hours may have less carbon abatement value compared with clean energy produced at other times and locations.

In other words, markets with high solar penetration will likely display a Locational Marginal Emissions rate (LME) duck curve in addition to the familiar LMP duck curve. LMEs reflect carbon abatement value at each location in a power system in each hour in the same way that LMPs reflect economic value4. We can use LMEs to measure the decarbonization effectiveness of clean generation resources. Similar to capture rate, decarbonization effectiveness quantifies the realized carbon reductions as a percentage of the potential decarbonization possible with a clean generation resource with a flat output profile.

Figure 2 compares the LME duck curve in ERCOT and CAISO as solar penetration increases. As with LMP, the LME duck curve is not noticeable when solar penetrations are low and decarbonization effectiveness of solar resources is high – close to 100% in ERCOT. As solar penetration increases, the LME duck curve emerges and solar decarbonization effectiveness drops. In CAISO in 2019 when solar penetration was 20%, solar was only 81% effective at reducing carbon emissions. Our Weather-Smart LME forecasts show that when ERCOT reaches that penetration, solar carbon abatement effectiveness will similarly fall to 89%.

LME duck curve, solar penetration, and solar decarbonization effectiveness in CAISO and ERCOT at 2.5% and 20% solar penetration.
Figure 2: LME duck curve, solar penetration, and solar decarbonization effectiveness in CAISO and ERCOT at 2.5% and 20% solar penetration.
Notes: Y-axis represents the average LME for each local-time hour divided by the annual average LME. ERCOT LMEs reflect North hub and CAISO LMEs reflect SP15 hub. 2031 ERCOT forecast based on REsurety Weather-Smart system Q2-2023 release, Baseline scenario, averaged across all weather conditions. X-axis shows “hour-beginning” time. Decarbonization effectiveness reflects modeled hourly ISO-average generation profiles. Solar penetration reflects the combination of grid-scale and behind-the-meter solar generation. LME data not available in CAISO for low solar penetration.

Financial and carbon abatement value are often the most important motivators for developing a new clean energy asset. Understanding how both value drivers are expected to evolve over time and across markets should be a key component of any investment decision. In practice, every asset is unique, with its own generation characteristics, network location, and contractual details. REsurety’s products and services are supported by decades of granular weather and market data as well as our proprietary Weather-Smart forecasting system and are well suited to addressing this complexity. These tools can help our customers to make better investment decisions, track the performance of their assets, and ultimately achieve more decarbonization at lower cost.

1 Solar penetration refers to the proportion of the total demand for electricity met by solar generation and is often reported on an annual basis.

2 Locational Marginal Price. Represents the financial value of power at a particular location at a particular time.

3 Daytime curtailment of solar resources is one of the drivers of low daytime prices and low marginal emissions intensities in the current CAISO market. Similar effects are reflected in our forecasts for ERCOT.

4 See https://resurety.com/solutions/locational-marginal-emissions/ for additional background on Locational Marginal Emissions.

About the author

David Luke Oates co-leads REsurety’s Research team. His team builds, tests, and deploys fundamentals and statistical models of electricity prices and emissions to support customer workflows. David Luke has over a decade of experience working in the electric power sector from positions in academia, consulting, and technology. Before joining REsurety, he was a consultant at The Brattle Group, supporting electricity market operators, utilities, and asset owners to address market design, asset valuation, and regulatory questions.

Dr. Oates holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Canada.

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White Paper: Paths to Carbon Neutrality

Posted on April 23, 2023 by - Blog, White Paper

Paths to Carbon Neutrality - A Comparison of Strategies for Tackling Corporate Scope II Carbon Emissions

A Comparison of Strategies for Tackling Corporate Scope II Carbon Emissions, published by Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich

White Paper: Paths to Carbon Neutrality - A Comparison of Strategies for Tackling Corporate Scope II Carbon Emissions, published by Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive, comparative study covering a variety of factors impacting the cost and implementation of corporate clean energy procurement strategies.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FULL REPORT

Read the excerpt below to learn more.

Global climate change has pushed carbon emissions to the forefront of public scrutiny and scientific inquiry. Striving to reduce their net carbon footprint, large energy consumers have increasingly turned to renewable energy resources. These energy consumers have pioneered different approaches toward clean energy procurement, such as the RE100 initiative, Google’s 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy, Microsoft’s 100/100/0 vision, and the Emissions First partnership led by Meta and Amazon. This white paper examines different clean energy procurement strategies in terms of overall cost and effectiveness in carbon emissions reduction.

Using locational marginal emission rate (LMERs), we quantify the cost and carbon emissions impact of clean energy procurement strategies for corporate energy consumers with varying load shapes and within a variety of balancing authorities. We compare energy matching strategies against a strategy that directly accounts for carbon emissions, which we call carbon matching, for two different types of large electricity consumers in 5 different balancing authorities. Balancing authorities ranged from large ISO/RTOs (PJM and CAISO) to vertically integrated utility regions covering a regional (Duke Energy Carolinas) or municipal area (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Portland General Electric). 

The results show the following:

  • Carbon matching, a strategy that directly accounts for carbon emissions using LMERs and ensures that avoided emissions are equal or greater than emissions attributable to load, is more cost-effective than any of energy matching strategies analyzed;
  • Energy matching does not guarantee reaching carbon neutrality;
  • Localized energy matching decreases carbon displacement efficiency;
  • Local energy matching may not be practical in certain regions, which could deter participation;
  • Hourly energy matching is the least efficient strategy at displacing carbon emissions, and its cost varies greatly depending on location



If you’d like to learn more about REsurety’s Location Marginal Emissions (LMEs) offerings, please contact us.

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Akamai 2022 ESG Impact Report, Featuring REsurety

Posted on April 13, 2023 by - Blog

“The LME data that REsurety provides enables Akamai to more closely calculate the estimated impact of our activities at each location on the grid.”

Akamai Technologies recently released their 2022 ESG Impact Report, highlighting their progress made in ESG focus areas. REsurety’s Locational Marginal Emissions (LME) data is featured and the report explains how LME data helped Akamai more accurately track their emissions abatement for projects. Read the full report here.

Read the excerpt below to learn more.

“Measuring emissions abatement on a global scale is challenging, mainly because the amount of carbon emissions avoided by a given megawatt-hour (MWh) of clean energy varies widely, even across projects within the same region. To address this, in 2022, we began using Locational Marginal Emissions (LMEs) from REsurety to try to more accurately track our emissions abatement in each project location.

Under the reporting provided by REsurety, LMEs are an innovative way to measure the tons of carbon emissions displaced by 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of clean energy added to the grid at a specific location at one particular point in time. LMEs are calculated at each power system node like the Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs) used to set wholesale electricity market prices. LMEs measure emissions by identifying the marginal generators that would have been producing energy if not for the renewable injection to the grid at that location.

The LME data that REsurety provides enables Akamai to more closely calculate the estimated impact of our activities at each location on the grid. LME reports also offer visibility into why emissions are what they are. For example, they show how much gas or coal is displaced or how much wind energy is curtailed due to our activities. These reports also provide insight that helps Akamai evaluate new market opportunities. Using LMEs ensures we focus on locations and technologies that can significantly impact our carbon emissions reduction efforts.”

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White Paper: Carbon Confidence in Climate Finance, as published by HASI

Posted on April 10, 2023 by - Blog, White Paper

“LME is an important tool in assessing individual projects because seemingly identical renewable energy projects can have drastically different impacts on avoided carbon emissions.”

CarbonCount is a decision tool that evaluates investments in U.S.-based renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate resilience projects to determine how efficiently they reduce CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions per $1,000 of investment. CarbonCount produces a quantitative impact assessment for investments’ carbon avoidance by integrating forward-looking project assumptions, emissions factors, and capital investment.

This white paper explains why CarbonCount matters, why it’s being updated, the methodology behind it, and use cases. REsurety’s Locational Marginal Emissions (LME) data is also featured in the paper.

Learn more here, or download the full white paper below.

Download the white paper

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Carbon Emissions Data is Now Available in REmap

Posted on February 27, 2023 by - Blog

REsurety's Director of Customer Success, Blair Allen
Author: Blair Allen
Director, Customer Success

Today we’re announcing the availability of Locational Marginal Emissions (LMEs) data in REmap. With this launch, our customers can now analyze the market value of their renewable energy projects as well as the carbon impact, all in one platform.

When we spoke with clean energy buyers, investors, and advisors about their biggest challenges, we learned that they need a better way to co-optimize the economic and carbon emissions impacts of their investment or procurement decisions. The economics of renewable energy projects have long been driven by time and location: when and where each MWh is produced determines the market value of that generation. As carbon accounting evolves to be similarly granular, customers want a toolset to help evaluate emissions impacts with the same level of rigor.

REsurety’s Renewable Energy Market Analytics Platform (REmap) is a map-based web platform that allows users to visualize and access hourly generation and power market data across thousands of locations in U.S. markets. For the past several years it has been valued by customers for its speed, ease of use, and high-quality datasets. REsurety’s nodal LME data, which measures the carbon emissions impact of clean energy generation at each specific location and hour, previously existed as a standalone data solution. We’re excited to integrate LME data into REmap to provide customers with fast and easy access to LME data via the powerful web interface, and enhance the capabilities of the REmap platform.

Analyze emissions performance in the same manner you’re accustomed to for market performance. Compare the emissions of projects across or within ISOs at the hourly or monthly level.

What this means to customers:

For clean energy buyers: access to LME data in REmap is particularly valuable when developing a procurement strategy or analyzing request for proposal (RFP) submissions for a power purchase agreement (PPA). It identifies the projects with the greatest decarbonization potential or determines which ISOs or regions to prioritize based on potential emissions impact.

For climate positive investors: the ability to see the emissions impact of merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities alongside project financial performance; enabling accurate analysis of avoided emissions per dollar invested.

For investment banks and corporate advisors: the capability to clearly visualize the emissions and power market data needed to win clients and help set and execute sustainability strategies.

Learn more at http://resurety.com/remap or contact [email protected].

About the author

Blair Allen has extensive experience in energy information services products that support both ends of energy market exposure, from the project development phase to managing merchant generation. Before joining REsurety, Mr. Allen worked at a large energy data and analytics company as the Chief of Staff to their Power business unit, helping to manage, develop, and grow the company’s global portfolio of electricity market products and services. Prior to that he worked as a Senior Market Analyst offering price and congestion forecasts to customers with physical or financial risk in Mid-continent ISO. At REsurety, Blair serves as the Director of Customer Success.

Blair holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Bucknell University, with a minor in Economics.

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Leading Global Organizations Launch New Consortium to Assess Climate Benefits of Energy Storage

Posted on September 14, 2022 by - Press

Wind power

The Energy Storage Solutions Consortium will develop a first-of-its-kind methodology to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions benefits of stored energy usage.

REsurety logo
Broad Reach

Sept. 14, 2022 (Menlo Park, Calif.) – A group of leading organizations, including Meta, REsurety, Broad Reach Power and others, has announced the formation of the Energy Storage Solutions Consortium, a consortium to assess and maximize the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential of electricity storage technologies. The group’s goal is to create an open-source, third-party-verified methodology to quantify the GHG benefits of certain grid-connected energy storage projects, and to ultimately help add a tool for organizations to create credible progress toward their net zero emissions goals.

Once approved by the third-party Verra through the Verified Carbon Standard Program, the standard would be the first verified methodology to quantify the emissions benefits of large-scale energy storage facilities, and would provide valuable guidance such as when to deploy stored energy to deliver maximum emissions reduction benefits. 

“At Meta, we are committed to accelerating the transition to the carbon-free grid of the future, and large-scale energy storage is a critical part of that transition. Having achieved 100% renewable energy for our global operations, we are now looking to help move the energy storage industry forward by addressing next-level challenges and opening pathways that will help drive high impact emissions reductions on the grid,” said Peter Freed, director of energy strategy at Meta. “We are excited to launch this consortium in partnership with these industry-leading organizations, who will bring diverse perspectives and experience to the development of a robust, transparent methodology.”

“We need to decarbonize the grid as quickly as possible, and to do that we need to maximize the emissions impacts of all grid-connected technologies – whether generation, load, hybrid or standalone storage,” says Adam Reeve, SVP of software solutions at REsurety. “Enabling this sort of decarbonizing activity is the exact reason why we invested in developing high-resolution Locational Marginal Emissions. Energy storage is a technology that has huge potential, and we’re delighted to partner with industry leaders in this forward-thinking and collaborative effort to develop a global standard for energy storage benefits.”

“Battery storage will play an increasingly important role in delivering reliable and affordable power to homes and businesses as we move toward a 100% renewable energy grid. As the leading utility-scale battery storage platform in the U.S., we’re looking forward to working with other industry leaders to be able to quantify the important GHG reduction benefits of large-scale energy storage facilities and help organizations take climate action,” says Paul Choi, EVP of origination at Broad Reach Power.

In order to calculate the GHG benefits of large-scale energy storage facilities, the consortium will leverage locational marginal emissions. This concept measures the tons of GHG emissions displaced through the charging and discharging of energy storage facilities on the grid at a specific location and point in time.

In addition to steering committee members Meta, REsurety and Broad Reach Power, the consortium includes a number of advisory committee members. These advisory members include leading technology companies, emissions data providers, investors, storage developers and service providers, and non-governmental organizations among others.

Members include:
3Degrees Group, Inc., Akamai Technologies, Clearloop, Equilibrium Energy, Fluence, General Motors, GlidePath Power Solutions, Habitat Energy, HASI, Jupiter Power, Longroad Energy, Marathon Capital, Microsoft, Primergy Solar, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, RES Group, Rivian, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Stem, Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich, TimberRock, UBS Asset Management, and WattTime.

The Energy Storage Solutions Consortium is also partnering with Perspectives Climate Group, the German consultancy dedicated to helping its clients achieve net zero GHG emissions and to developing practical solutions for accounting of emission reductions from innovative climate- friendly technologies.

About Meta Platforms, Inc.
Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology. about.facebook.com

About REsurety
REsurety is the leading analytics company empowering the clean energy economy. Operating at the intersection of weather, power markets and financial modeling, we enable the industry’s decision-makers to thrive through best-in-class value and risk intelligence, and the tools to act on it. For more information, visit www.resurety.com or follow REsurety on LinkedIn.

About Broad Reach Power
Broad Reach Power is the leading utility-scale battery storage platform in the United States. Based in Houston, Broad Reach is backed by leading energy transition investors, EnCap Investments L.P., Apollo Global Management, Yorktown Partners and Mercuria Energy. The company owns a 21 GW portfolio of utility-scale battery storage and renewable power projects across the U.S., giving utilities, generators, and customers access to technological insight and tools for managing merchant power risk so they can better match supply and demand. For more information about the company, visit www.broadreachpower.com.

Media Contacts

REsurety
Tara Bartley
[email protected]
(774) 232-1220

Broad Reach Power
Morgan Moritz
[email protected]
(512) 745-2575

Meta
Stacey Yip
[email protected]
(650) 407-0610

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Decarbonizing the Datacenter, as published in the Wall Street Journal

Posted on June 21, 2022 by - Press

Solar Energy

EXCERPT:

Solar Energy

Microsoft, which operates a global network of datacenters for its cloud services, has a long-term vision that by 2030, 100% of its electricity consumption, 100% of the time, will be generated from zero-carbon sources. This “100/100/0” commitment recognizes not only the critical obligations Microsoft has as a major consumer of electricity, but also the opportunities that come with it, says Brian Janous, general manager of energy and renewables at Microsoft.

Microsoft, which operates a global network of datacenters for its cloud services, has a long-term vision that by 2030, 100% of its electricity consumption, 100% of the time, will be generated from zero-carbon sources. This “100/100/0” commitment recognizes not only the critical obligations Microsoft has as a major consumer of electricity, but also the opportunities that come with it, says Brian Janous, general manager of energy and renewables at Microsoft.

In the U.S., Microsoft has partnered with clean energy analytics company REsurety to help develop tools capable of calculating emissions at each node along an electric grid. First piloted in Texas, these measurements of Locational Marginal Emissions (LMEs) help companies trying to decarbonize better understand the sources of the power they use on a granular level, then measure the impact of clean energy use and adjust power practices accordingly.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.

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