How to add Peninsula Clean Energy to the map?

[zestysoft]

Hi all, San Mateo County in California, US has the ability to use Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE) as the electricity generator that is delivered over Pacific Gas & Electric's (PGE) infrastructure.

The two choices of generation are EcoPlus and Eco100 (Just 1 cent extra per kWh):

Is this something that should qualify on this map?

[VIKTORVAV99]

Hi!

This don't sound like a grid area but rather a product offering from a local supplier. I can almost guarantee that even if you pick the ECO100 option for example that you'll still get production from other sources than solar and wind as there simply is no way of guaranteeing there will be enough solar and wind all year around if everyone picked that.

We only use the total amount of generated values for each grid are to avoid things like the below example.
If you and I where the only two customers, the company produced 50mw of coal, 25mw wind, and 25mw solar.
If there was a qual split and we both use 50 mw we would each get 50% coal, 25% wind and 25% solar.
But if I where to purchase the ECO100 and used 50mw I could report using 50% solar and 50% wind.

That means there are 50mw coal left.

By grid constraints that would have to be allocated to you, but if you just used the default plan you'd expect 50% coal, 25% solar, and 25% wind. And that would probably be the values you used in reporting an similar but that would then overestimate the total amount of solar and wind produced and underestimate the total coal produced if we add up our two "reporting values"

That would not be good.

And of course once the electricity has been input to the grid there is no way of splitting them up by source for any individual, which is why we only use generated values to calculate the carbon intensity for each zone and if they have power exchanges with other zones we flowtrace those values to find the origin mix.

You can read more about it here:
https://www.electricitymaps.com/blog/flow-tracing

[zestysoft]

Aren't most US state grids interconnected? Given this reasoning, there should just be one choice for the whole country because it's impossible to really isolate any one area? It's weird seeing zones in California at all given what you've said. I see that some of these areas are "estimated" -- maybe that is the work-around?

[VIKTORVAV99]

Aren't most US state grids interconnected? Given this reasoning, there should just be one choice for the whole country because it's impossible to really isolate any one area? It's weird seeing zones in California at all given what you've said. I see that some of these areas are "estimated" -- maybe that is the work-around?

The grids that are defined are the balancing authorities that are reporting data to the EIA. These report how much they are producing for each of the production modes as well as how much they are importing and exporting to neighboring balancing areas.

This has nothing to do with what contracts the end customers have chosen. It's simply the physical reality of the grid.

[Adii-Baadshah]

Hi!

Thank you for your detailed explanation. You're right. Once electricity enters the grid, you can't see where it comes from. Energy allocation by source depends on total generation and environmental impact. It does not consider the physical delivery of energy.

In Pakistan, FESCO (Faisalabad Electric Supply Company) has similar issues. Despite efforts to boost renewables, we still rely on coal and natural gas. This is due to limits on renewable output and the grid's energy storage. The ECO100 concept is like efforts to boost renewables. As you said, grid limits and production mixes set the carbon footprint.

We provide services for the FESCO Online Bill on our website. This transparency helps consumers choose energy-efficient options, which is vital for a sustainable energy future.

Let's explore how Pakistan's electricity distribution system works. We can also share insights on renewable energy use in FESCO's areas. Let me know!