Decarbonization Of the Energy System Is Critical
Every organization, company, and household needs cost-effective, reliable energy - and we’ll need much more of it in the future.
Yet, energy-use represents 73% of total greenhouse gas emissions and 92% of CO2 emissions[1]. This creates global risks and organization-specific financial liabilities.
This means decarbonizing energy-use is key to addressing climate risk, improving health, protecting local environments, and managing financial risks. Solve energy CO2e, and we’ve solved some of our most pressing global challenges while quantifying and taming emissions-based financial liabilities.
Data & Tools Are Lacking
But energy consumers lack the data and means to precisely measure and reduce energy CO2e.
Those that try to measure their energy emissions typically rely on techniques that are more estimate than measurement often using data averages that may be several years old[2].
Those that try to reduce their energy emissions typically apply tools – such as Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) – that have value but are, at best, proxies for carbon reduction, not measurable CO2e reduction where the energy is consumed[3].
Organizations in the vanguard of the sustainability movement understand these short-comings and are seeking solutions that enable more effective action and 24/7 CO2e free energy[4]. These organizations seek to go Beyond Accounting in favor of Impact.
The Problem is More Complex and Bigger Than Many Understand
The energy system is dynamic and complex. As it reacts to constantly changing, real-time demand, the embedded emissions of energy can vary every 5-minutes and by location. Most organization, especially those with large footprints, have no means of measuring these changes and accounting for this complexity. Further, many organizations have yet to even assess the scale of the challenge. Scope 3 emissions - indirect emissions associated with supply-chain, sales channel and use of product - represent 65%-95% of total emissions[5]. Without Scope 3 measurement, organizations only see the tip of the iceberg.
The Risks Are Real
For the above reasons, organizations are correctly concerned about CO2e being a balance sheet liability. Some even argue that CO2e might be an organization’s single biggest financial liability[6], and recent actions by the SEC highlight that such concerns should not be ignored[7]. Accurate, auditable representations of an organization’s emissions footprint is critical. Flying blind or making claims based on antiquated data carries real financial risk.
A Big Problem; A Huge Opportunity
This is a big problem, but fixing it is a huge opportunity. TimberRock's Energy Data Platform (EDP) was built to help fix the problem of precise, energy CO2e measurement and unlocks the means of reducing it. The EDP is in use with some of the world’s largest energy consumers[8] and works in coordination with some of the world’s largest energy systems[9].
An Analogy
Imagine an airliner that needs to descend from a high-altitude and land smoothly and safely at a distant airport. It’s a complicated transition.
To pull it off, a sophisticated system uses instrumentation to collect data from across the aircraft’s many systems, plots the most efficient glideslope and automates the descent. At any point, the pilots understand precisely where they are at on the glideslope and how to react to conditions as they change.
Organizations have a similarly complicated transition to navigate as they decarbonize their energy. The TimberRock Energy Data Platform was built to help. It collects energy data, plots a cost-effective glide slope, and automates emissions mitigation. It provides an organization’s leadership precise awareness regarding their energy emissions, data-driven insights to achieve their goals and audit-ready documentation.
How It Works
The TimberRock Energy Data Platform has three components that combine to track and reduce energy CO2e:
The Platform Edge integrates with an organization’s existing data networks or a utility’s smart meter network and – when needed – leverages additional “edge devices” that collectively digitize an organization’s energy meters & distributed energy resources (DERs) data in near real-time. This provides a perpetually updated picture – often updated every minute - of how energy is being consumed across every corner of an organization’s footprint.
The Platform Cloud then aggregates Edge data along with numerous, verifiable data sources that provide time-specific and location-specific energy CO2e-intensity data. These diverse data sets are harmonized, enriched and precise CO2e calculation of induced emissions are made and published as “debits”. Where mitigation or intervention produces a measurable CO2e reduction, a “credit” is published that represents those avoided emissions. Thus, the Cloud maintains a CO2e debit/credit (i.e., induced/avoided emissions) system that is transparent, immutable and audit ready.
The Platform Portal is an enterprise-wide, cyber-secure portal that allows all permissioned users of an organization to access and use energy CO2e data. Applications support various needs and workflows. Energy procurement managers see meter-level data and are notified if data errors occur. Senior management can see a high-level summary of their global footprint. Unique to TimberRock's Platform, the Portal is easily extensible to an organization’s supply-chain, retail outlets and even end-customers. This multiplies the impact the Platform can deliver across Scope 3 footprints.
Key Features:
The TimberRock Energy Data Platform was designed to be the most sophisticated emissions management platform in the industry and has the following features:
Comprehensive: Emissions management for all energy - electricity, gaseous fuel, and liquid fuel
Extensible: Specifically designed to support the entire GHG footprint - to include Scope 3
Accurate:
- Audit-ready – Data sources are verifiable, emission calculations are serialized, results are immutable and ready for third-party assessment
- Data collection automation - Reduces person power and transcription errors
- Accurate, granular emissions factors – location-specific and time-specific. Updated based on actual, local grid conditions every 5 or 15-minutes. Both average and marginal factors
- “Big Data” is scanned to detect anomies allowing errors to be corrected.
Cost-Effective: Average GHG analysis/disclosure costs are estimated at $237K annually [10]. The TimberRock Energy Data Platform is a fraction of that cost. In base version it’s, available without longer-term contract.
Action-Oriented: Based on user preference and the defined glideslope, mitigation and applications of off-sets or credits can be fully automated. NET emission target is achieved each period.
EV Fleet Integration: Purpose-built to support decarbonization of the transportation sector. Avoided emissions of converting from gasoline to electric vehicle fleets is tracked. Remaining upstream electricity emissions are tracked. Managed charging is optimized based on grid conditions and renewable availability for peak decarbonization.
Distributed Energy Resource (DER) & The Grid: DERs – such as PV, storage and high-efficiency heat pumps – integrated and managed to support decarbonization and stabilization of the electrical grid. The TimberRock Energy Data Platform is integrated with millions of utility smart meters and can enroll and dispatch DERs in dozens of the largest Demand Response programs. DERs can be optimized for both CO2e and grid services monetization.
Future-Ready: Avoided CO2e emissions (i.e., Scope 4 emissions) can be measured and published as credits to support bilateral transactions and trading.
Summary
In the near-term, precise measurement of energy emissions – across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 – demonstrates an organization’s commitment to accurate, transparent accountability. In the longer-term, it is the key to impact and unlocks the means of transitioning to a NET zero energy emissions status - the biggest emissions impact most organization can have.
The TimberRock Energy Data Platform is built to organize, automate, and audit-proof the process of reporting energy emissions. It collects primary data from actual energy consumption meters and applies continuously updated, verifiable location and time specific carbon emissions factors. Auditing is simple because all original data is permanently retained and calculated results immutable.
The TimberRock Energy Data Platform often costs less than manual, error-prone emissions reporting. It provides actionable intelligence that maximizes an organization’s capacity to impact both their own and system-wide emissions.
Please contact us to lean more: info@trock.io
[1] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/energy-and-the-environment/where-greenhouse-gases-come-from.php
[2] See, for example The Climate Registry GHG Emissions Quantification Methods. Page C-2. https://www.theclimateregistry.org/protocols/GRP-V3-Quantification-Methods.pdf
[3] “Beyond RECs” TimberRock, Fred Ugast
[4] https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/google-and-others-have-committed-to-24-7-carbon-free-energy-what-does-that-mean
[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/18/apple-amazon-exxon-and-the-toughest-carbon-emissions-to-capture.html
[6] https://hbr.org/2021/10/carbon-might-be-your-companys-biggest-financial-liability
[7] https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/2022/33-11042.pdf
[8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/30/gm-renewable-power/
[9] https://insidelines.pjm.com/pjm-backs-use-of-marginal-emission-rates-data-tool-in-comments-to-the-sec/
[10] https://www.erm.com/news/survey-reveals-costs-and-benefits-of-climate-related-disclosure-for-companies-and-investors/