Sustainable

Carbon Intensity of Electricity in Jersey

The company's self imposed aim is to provide electricity with a carbon intensity of less than 100g (0.1kg CO₂/kW).

Jersey Electricity's long term sustainability and protection of the environment is at the core of its business strategy.  For more than 20 years the company has deployed a deliberate strategy to reduce carbon and particulate emissions that arise from providing electricity as an energy supply.  We take responsibility not just for the environmental impact of electricity generated and distributed locally, but also for the environmental impact across the full electricity supply chain, including imported electricity from Électricité de France (EDF) which is produced under contract for consumption in Jersey.  We have driven this carbon reduction agenda by gradually displacing locally generated high carbon oil derived electricity, with low carbon imported electricity from EDF's fleet of nuclear, wind and hydro-electric generation.

We use a well-established methodology for calculating carbon emissions, based on the actual system carbon intensity.  Under this methodology, the total carbon emissions of the electricity consumed on the system is calculated at the end of the year based on the carbon intensity of the volumes of electricity imported and volumes of electricity generated locally, including allowances for distribution and cable transportation losses.  This approach has been endorsed by a number of consultants, including the independent and highly respected Buildings Research Establishment (BRE), an independent research and test authority.  BRE has validated this approach for energy policy, building byelaws and other long term decision-making.  We believe this approach is sound for the following reasons:

1.The methodology has a firm legal basis and is an established European Standard.  European Union Directive 2003/54/EC contains a requirement on all member states to ensure that electricity suppliers by Law publish information on the fuel mix and environmental consequences of the electricity they supply.  Under the Directive, the CO₂ intensity is the average of the fuel sources comprising a supplier's portfolio of generation purchases.  In compliance with this Directive, Jersey Electricity's supplier, EDF (France) declared that in 2007, each kWh of electricity supplied to the JEC resulted in the emission of 59g of CO₂/ kWh.  The weighted average emission intensity in Jersey, after taking into account locally generated electricity, imported electricity and losses through cable transport is 80g of CO₂/ kWh.

2.The methodology is appropriate given the nature of the relationship between Jersey Electricity and EDF.  Long-term contracts and other commitments allow energy suppliers to plan the energy needs for their customers. Undersea France-Jersey interconnectors laid in 1985 and 2000 opened up opportunities for EDF to negotiate contracts initially with Jersey, then Guernsey to provide their respective energy requirements. The long-term contracts provided the security needed for EDF to invest in new plant that otherwise would not exist and expand their power generation to provide the Channel Islands Electricity Grid with up to 145MW over a 15-year period.

3.Transparent and transferrable methods.  If for whatever reason the existing contract with EDF is not renewed, there are several alternative suppliers of low carbon electricity the company could contract with.  This ensures competition in the supply chain on both price and carbon content.  A different energy supplier either in France or elsewhere in Europe would also be required to publish the carbon intensity of their portfolio. If, in an unlikely worst-case-scenario Jersey Electricity was unable to find a suitable low carbon supplier, Jersey Electricity would always have the ability to buy carbon credits to ensure continued progress towards our 'sustainability' or 'low carbon' goals, which we have made public. 

4. The methodology encourages generators and suppliers to take responsibility and ensures appropriate incentives.  If the actual carbon intensity of the electricity is ignored in preference to an arbitrary proxy assumption like the European grid average, then suppliers would not be incentivised to source low carbon electricity, and similarly generators would not be incentivised to build low carbon generation facilities.  In this instance, Jersey Electricity might reasonably choose to source electricity from, for example, lower cost, higher carbon, coal plants of Eastern Europe, given that the carbon intensity figure suggested by the European grid average is just that - an average across Europe that cannot be directly influenced.  Similarly electricity generators would be considerably less incentivised to install, for example, expensive carbon sequestration plant on existing coal plants, or develop costly low carbon renewable generation facilities, if there is no demand for it from suppliers like Jersey Electricity.

Jersey Electricity has also consulted another respected energy consultant, which has confirmed that this is a valid methodology consistent with the accepted conventions and the relevant European Union Directive.

Another approach to carbon intensity measurement could have been used based on another convention used for the GHG National Inventory.  Under this scheme defined under Kyoto Protocol, all imported electricity would be treated as having zero carbon emissions, because the territory of origin of production and not consumption accounts for carbon emissions.  Although this would enable our company to declare an even lower emissions figure, Jersey Electricity would not support this approach because it would not be consistent with our 'sustainability' goals.  The result of such a measure would be to effectively outsource and ignore any poor environmental performance of our suppliers.

Apart from the perverse incentives that would result from the use of the European grid average proxy, this benchmark is not an established standard and a legal framework does not underpin it.  Most importantly, it bears no resemblance to the reality of Jersey's actual electricity imports.  Even the UK conventions of the Carbon Trust, DEFRA and BSI PAS2050, and the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Protocol propose the use of national average emission factors when more specific factors are not available (in fact they suggest the reference to be 'as specific to the product system as possible').  These national averages are typically only published to be used as guides to companies and organisations to assist them in calculating their carbon footprint.  They are not used for long term energy policy decisions nor to establish building standards, and are not meant to replace the labelling of electricity under the EU Directive referred to above.  Even if these conventions were (inappropriately) applied to Jersey, the national grid average of France should logically be used (not the European grid average). The French national grid has average carbon intensity of about 90g of CO₂/ kWhr, slightly higher than EDF but still considerably lower than LPG. 


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