Verra has released a new tool in the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program: VCS Tool VT0010 Emissions from Electricity Consumption and Generation, v1.0. VT0010 provides procedures for calculating baseline, project, and leakage emissions from electricity consumption and generation.
This tool is intended for use with methodologies approved in the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program that require the estimation of emissions from electricity consumption and generation. It is applicable to electricity sources such as national and regional grids, offsite low-carbon power plants (via purpose-built wheeling arrangements), and directly connected power plants (including shared and dedicated power plants).
VT0010 builds off the procedures for calculating emissions from electricity consumption and generation in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) TOOL05 Baseline, project and/or leakage emissions from electricity consumption and monitoring of electricity generation (external). It also integrates procedures from other CDM tools to account for emissions related to fossil fuel combustion, grid emission factors, and thermal energy efficiency, all of which enable robustness in emission calculations.
VT0010 includes the following key features:
- It allows for both direct measurements and estimation methods, providing flexibility in monitoring electricity consumption.
- It includes flexible procedures for calculating the emission factor (EF) for electricity consumption. Projects will soon be able to calculate the EF using VCS Tool VT0011 Electricity System Emission Factors for national or regional grid emission factors. This range of options allows project proponents to apply the most accurate and appropriate data source for their specific context.
- It is adaptable to different project types and provides procedures for various scenarios:
- Scenario A: projects using electricity from a national or regional grid
- Scenario B: projects using electricity from offsite low-carbon power plants through purpose-built wheeling arrangements
- Scenario C: projects supplied by shared power plants
- Scenario D: projects using dedicated power plants
- VT0010 enables consistency in how VCS methodologies that account for electricity emissions are measuring electricity consumption in the baseline, project, and leakage scenarios. The tool is designed to be referenced by various VCS methodologies, providing a uniform structure for electricity-related emissions across projects.
VT0010 is designed to meet the requirements of the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) Assessment Framework of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). Verra expects to release revisions of methodologies that rely on the new tool in the coming months.). If the ICVCM approves the methodologies relying on VT0010, Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) generated by projects using these methodologies will qualify for CCP labels.
The release of VT0010 follows a public consultation, which ran from December 15, 2023, to January 29, 2024.
Implications for VCS Projects
VCS methodologies that require the quantification of emissions from electricity consumption and generation will be revised to require the use of VT0010. Projects must apply VT0010 if indicated in the applicable methodology. Some methodologies may require the use of another tool or provide a different approach to assess emissions from electricity.
Methodology versions using CDM TOOL05 to quantify emissions from electricity consumption and generation will be inactivated when revisions of these methodologies are published. Projects may only use an inactivated methodology version if they complete validation within a grace period (details about grace periods will be included in the respective inactivation announcement). Projects using an active methodology that uses TOOL05 may apply VT0010 instead of TOOL05.