Corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting is a complex and inexact undertaking. Today, electric companies operating in the United States are required to report the “direct” GHG emissions from electric power generating facilities to federal and state regulatory agencies including the US EPA. Many companies also report their direct emissions and “indirect” emissions to a variety of external stakeholder organizations and entities interested in enhanced disclosure of corporate GHG emissions. In addition, many electric companies have adopted voluntary commitments to reduce their GHG emissions. To develop accurate emissions inventories and to track progress toward achieving these goals, companies need to understand both their direct and indirect GHG emissions and how to account for them, and how future activities may impact their corporate GHG emissions accounting.
This report is a compendium of briefing papers and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) developed to support a series of webcasts EPRI hosted in 2020 and 2021 as part of a project on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting for Electric Power Companies. This project was designed to improve participants’ understanding of voluntary corporate GHG emissions accounting as it applies to electric companies and combined utilities, and to expand electric companies’ knowledge about key technical issues related to accounting for “scope 2” and “scope 3” indirect emissions.
This compendium explores a variety of key technical issues and nuances related to GHG emissions reporting and important technical considerations electric companies may want to address when developing their own GHG emissions inventories.
Authors Adam Diamant and Laura Fischer