Cleartrace Glossary – Cleartrace

Inventory Terms

Portfolio Assets

Active Start/End Date: along with Status, used to denote the dates that the Site became active and, if applicable, when it became inactive.

Balancing Authority: the grid operator for the location of the site and the locational reference point by which to pull certain grid carbon data sources. In deregulated areas of the US, the balancing authority is the large regional system operator, such as NYISO, CAISO, ERCOT, and PJM, whereas in regulated areas the Balancing Authority may be equivalent to the utility services that area. The Balancing Authority is the geographical bounds used by the 24/7 CFE methodology to inform where local energy is procured from.

Energy Consumption (MWh): as seen on the Site Dashboard, is the quantity of energy consumed by the site(s) over a specific period of time from any source (ranging from hourly interval data to monthly utility bills). This can include energy consumed from the grid, as well as energy consumed from onsite generation sources.

Floor Area: if provided, denotes the square feet of a property, used to perform intensity metrics such as energy consumed per square foot.

Granular data: granular data is most often available in 5, 15, 30 or 60-minute intervals. It is often obtained through an active data integration in near real time and is another available option for energy consumption data. With granular energy data, more granular carbon data and granular load-matching can occur, for purposes of methodologies like 24/7 CFE and Emissionality.

Meter: meters represent the independent data feeds that are associated with each site in your inventory, typically associated with a physical meter on-site. By way of example, consumption sites like an office building will have one, or more, consumption meters which will measure the total energy consumption of a site. Some sites may have on-site renewable generation as well (e.g. solar panels on a roof) that provides energy for the site, which is measured by one, or more, generation meters. Like Sites, meters can also have a status and active date range, as well as a fuel type.

Onsite Generation (MWh): as seen on the Site Dashboard, the energy generated at the location where it is consumed (e.g. solar panels on a roof). Energy generated on-site in excess of the site’s load at any period of time would be dispatched to the local grid or stored on-site for future use.

Ownership: Owned or Leased, used to classify certain locations from others, where this distinction may impact the reporting process for those locations.

Portfolio Assets: this term is used to represent buildings or other assets that a company owns or operates and that contribute in some way to their carbon management activities.

Property Type: a classification of the use of the location, such as commercial office or data center, for purposes of categorizing energy and emissions data

Site: a site is the entity in our platform that represents a location where energy is consumed and/or generated. Typical examples include an office building, a data center, a retail location, a wind farm, or a hydroelectric dam. Sites can be uploaded with additional details that help customers understand and analyze their data. This can include the following, among others.

Site Count: On the inventory page, site count is the total number of registered sites for the selected portfolio, year, and filters.

Status: Active or Inactive, used to denote if a Site is in an actively operational state, currently contributing to the energy use and carbon emissions of the portfolio.

Utility Bills: this is one available option for uploading energy consumption data. Each utility bill represents a period of time, often monthly, and an amount of energy consumed during that period. They are often associated with a single month, i.e. February, even if they technically represent data from February 3 to March 4. Utility bills can be used for GHG Protocol reporting, that only requires annual energy data to be collected.

Contractual Instruments

Agreement Rules: For bundled power purchase agreements, that include energy attribute certificates or other instruments that are traded with the underlying energy produced, the Agreement Rules are the piece of the Contractual Instrument in the Cleartrace platform that models the granular energy delivery based on generation at the source, the shape of the agreement, and any additional data.

Balancing Authority Zone / Supply BA Zone: For larger regional balancing authorities, like PJM, NYISO, and ERCOT, we also track the more specific Zone in which the generation assets reside.

Bundled Agreement: A power purchase agreement that includes energy attribute certificates or other instruments that are traded with the underlying energy produced.

Certificate Serial Number: The unique serial number that identifies an Energy Attribute Certificate (EAC).

Compliance Year Start/End: Compliance year is the year in which a contractual instrument is claimed for annual reporting. For ongoing contracts that span multiple years, the compliance year start and end represent that time span of the contract.

Contractual Instrument: Any type of contract between two parties for the sale and purchase of energy bundled with attributes about the energy generation, or for unbundled attribute claims. Markets differ as to what contractual instruments are commonly available or used by companies to purchase energy or claim specific attributes about it, but they can include energy attribute certificates (RECs, GOs, etc), direct contracts (for both low-carbon, renewable or fossil fuel generation), supplier-specific emission rates, and other default emission factors representing the untracked or unclaimed energy and emissions (termed the residual mix) if a company does not have other contractual information that meet the Scope 2 Quality Criteria.

EAC (Energy Attribute Certificate): A category of contractual instruments used in the energy sector to convey information about energy generation to other entities involved in the sale, distribution, consumption, or regulation of electricity. This category includes instruments that may go by several different names, including certificates, tags, credits, etc. A REC is a commonly known type of an EAC.

Energy Delivered: As seen on a Bundled Agreement within the contractual instrument dashboard, the Energy Delivered represents the granular energy delivery based on generation at the source, the shape of the agreement, and any additional data.

Fuel Type: Refers to the fuels used in the production of energy, such as solar, wind, hydro, gas, coal, and oil.

Quantity: EACs are typically represented in batches of multiple certificates, the quantity here refers to the number of certificates shown, which is equivalent to the number of MWh of energy the certificates represent.

REC (Renewable Energy Certificate): A type of energy attribute certificate, used in the U.S. and Australia. In the U.S., a REC is defined as representing the property rights to the generation, environmental, social, and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation.

Registry: A database that helps execute energy attribute certificate issuance and cancellation/retirement/claims between account holders in the system. It can track information on certificates or generation occurring throughout the defined system. They are typically tied to geopolitical or grid operational boundaries.

Shape: The shape of a power purchase agreement describes how the seller has guaranteed energy to be delivered to the buyer. For example, this can be a fixed shape described by an expected pattern of delivered energy, or a slice-of-system that prescribes a designated percentage of delivery, up to 100%, or as-produced.

Status: EACs tracked in the Cleartrace system can have various statuses, such as Active or Retired/Cancelled

Supplier: An entity that provides or sells energy products to another entity.

Supplier Balancing Authority: For a given contractual instrument, this refers to the grid balancing authority that the generation assets reside in.

Unbundled Agreement: An agreement where the energy attribute certificates or other instruments are separate, and may be traded separately, from the underlying energy produced.

Unbundled Purchase: The purchase of energy attribute certificates or other instruments separated from the underlying energy produced.

Vintage: The date that electric generation occurs and/or was measured, from which an energy attribute certificate is issued. This should be distinguished from an energy facility’s age (e.g. date that a generating unit commenced operation)

Methodology Terms

Average Grid Carbon Intensity (mt CO2e / MWh): Hourly carbon intensity of a given balancing authority on the grid, calculated utilizing hourly grid mix data of the generation sources and the average carbon emissions those sources contribute.

Emissionality: quantitative measurement that compares the impact of renewable energy projects on driving down emissions. Due to the uneven distribution of clean energy in the United States, where a renewable energy project is built has a large influence over how much carbon it is reducing, or directly replacing.

Grid Mix: the proportion of power generating sources that supply power to a grid. Each energy source fuel type makes up a certain percentage of overall grid energy for a given timeframe. This includes imports and exports for the hourly data used in the Cleartrace platform.

mt CO2e: Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. See CO2 equivalent.

24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE)

The following glossary terms are referenced from the Google document, 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy: Methodologies and Metrics, found here: https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/24x7-carbon-free-energy-methodologies-metrics.pdf

Additionality: The idea that, through our energy procurement activities, we enable the deployment of clean electricity generation that is new to the grid. In practice, additionality is a spectrum, and our approach is flexible to consider multiple options along this spectrum.

Avoided Emissions: The total carbon emissions, measured in tCO2e, from grid electricity that are displaced by the addition of a new carbon-free generation project to the same grid. This is calculated based on the amount of contracted energy that is hourly matched in the same regional grid where consumption occurs.

Carbon-Free Energy (CFE): Any type of electricity generation that does not directly emit carbon dioxide, including solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, sustainable biomass, and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Carbon-Free Energy Score (CFE Score): In each hour, the percentage of Load that is matched with carbon-free energy within a Regional Grid, including contracted and grid mix CFE. This hourly value is often aggregated (load MWh-weighted) to an annual value for further analysis.The Annual CFE Score is the load-weighted average of all CFE Scores across all of the hours in a year, or stated another way, the sum of all Contracted CFE and Consumed Grid CFE divided by the sum of all load over the course of a year.

Consumed Grid CFE (Grid Carbon-Free): The carbon-free electricity from the Regional Grid measured in MWh that is attributed to consumption and is included in the CFE Score. Mathematically, this is the Grid CFE % multiplied by the net load of any Contracted CFE.

Contracted CFE (Contracted Carbon-Free): The carbon-free electricity measured in MWh that is purchased through power purchase agreements or other procurement mechanisms and is included in the CFE Score.

Excess CFE: In any given hour, if Contracted CFE exceeds the amount of electricity consumed across a Regional Grid, this incremental volume measured in MWh is considered “Excess CFE.”

Electricity Emissions: The carbon emissions associated with electricity consumption, measured in mt (metric tons) CO2e, which is calculated as the difference between Load and Contracted CFE, multiplied by the carbon intensity of the Regional Grid.

Grid Carbon-Based: The amount of energy consumed from the grid in any given hour that is from carbon-emitting sources such as oil, gas, or coal and not from a contracted energy source.

Grid CFE %: In each hour for every Regional Grid, the percentage of carbon-free energy sources that are being consumed on the grid over the total MWh being consumed in that hour.

Regional Grid: The Regional Grid is the geographic basis for 24/7 CFE goals. In the US, a Regional Grid is typically an ISO if there is one, and if there is not, then a Balancing Authority is used. In Europe and Asia, the definition is currently at a country level.

Matched Onsite Generation: Energy generated on-site which was consumed onsite load within a given hour.

Unmatched Onsite Generation: Energy generated on-site which was dispatched (exported) or could not be matched due to lack of REC retention.

GHG Protocol

The following glossary terms are referenced from the GHG Protocol document, Page 99 of the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, found here: https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/Scope 2 Guidance.pdf

Activity data: A quantitative measure of a level of activity that results in GHG emissions. Activity data is multiplied by an emissions factor to derive the GHG emissions associated with a process or an operation. Examples of activity data include kilowatt-hours of electricity used, quantity of fuel used, output of a process, hours equipment is operated, distance traveled, and floor area of a building.

Additionality: A criterion often applied to GHG project activities, stipulating that project-based GHG reductions should only be quantified if the project activity “would not have happened anyway”—i.e., that the project activity (or the same technologies or practices that it employs) would not have been implemented in its baseline scenario.

Allocation: The process of assigning responsibility for GHG emissions from a specific generating unit or other system (e.g., vehicle, business unit, corporation) among its various users of the product or service.

Allowance: A commodity issued by an emissions trading program that gives its holder the right to emit a certain quantity of GHG emissions.

Annex 1 countries: Defined in the International Climate Change Convention as those countries taking on emissions reduction obligations: Australia; Austria; Belgium; Belarus; Bulgaria; Canada; Croatia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Monaco; Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Russian Federation; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Ukraine; United Kingdom; and the United States.

Attribute: Descriptive or performance characteristics of a particular generation resource. For scope 2 GHG accounting, the GHG emission rate attribute of the energy generation is required to be included in a contractual instrument in order to make a claim.

Audit trail: Well-organized and transparent historical records documenting how the GHG inventory was compiled.

Avoided emissions: An assessment of emissions reduced or avoided compared to a reference case or baseline scenario.

Base year emissions: GHG emissions in the base year

Base year emissions recalculation: Recalculation of emissions in the base year to reflect a change in the structure of the company or a change in the accounting methodology used, to ensure data consistency over time.

Baseline scenario: A hypothetical description of what would have most likely occurred in the absence of any considerations about climate change mitigation. For grid-connected project activities, the baseline scenario is presumed to involve generation from the build margin, the operating margin, or a combination of the two.

Baseload: A type of power plant that operates continuously (or nearly continuously) to meet base levels of power demand that can be expected regardless of the time of day or year.

Biofuels: Fuel made from plant material, such as wood, straw, and ethanol from plant matter.

Biogenic CO2 emissions: CO2 emissions from the combustion or biodegradation of biomass.

Biogenic gas (biogas): Methane that is produced from a biomass resource, such as animal waste, agricultural waste, landfill gas, municipal waste, or digester gas.

Biomass: Any material or fuel produced by biological processes of living organisms, including organic non-fossil material of biological origin (e.g., plant material), biofuels (e.g., liquid fuels produced from biomass feedstocks), biogenic gas (e.g., landfill gas), and biogenic waste (e.g., municipal solid waste from biogenic sources).

Build margin (BM): The incremental new capacity displaced by a project activity. The build margin indicates the alternative type of power plant (or plants) that would have been built to meet demand for new capacity in the baseline scenario.

Bundled: An energy attribute certificate or other instrument that is traded with the underlying energy produced.

Cap-and-trade system: A system that sets an overall emissions limit, allocates emissions allowances to participants, and allows them to trade allowances and emission credits with each other.

Certificate: See energy attribute certificate

Certified Emission Reductions (CERs): A unit of emission reduction generated by a CDM project. CERs are tradable commodities that can be used by Annex 1 countries to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A mechanism established by Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol for project-based emission reduction activities in developing countries. The CDM is designed to meet two main objectives: to address the sustainability needs of the host country and to increase the opportunities available to Annex 1 Parties to meet their GHG reduction commitments. The CDM allows for the creation, acquisition, and transfer of CERs from climate change mitigation projects undertaken in non-Annex 1 countries.

CO2 equivalent (CO2e): The universal unit of measurement to indicate the global warming potential (GWP) of each greenhouse gas, expressed in terms of the GWP of one unit of carbon dioxide. It is used to evaluate releasing (or avoiding releasing) different greenhouse gases against a common basis.

Cogeneration unit/Combined heat and power (CHP): A facility producing both electricity and steam/heat using the same fuel supply.

Company: The term company is used in this standard as shorthand to refer to the entity developing a GHG inventory, which may include any organization or institution, either public or private, such as businesses, corporations, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, assurers and verifiers, universities, etc.

Consumer: The end consumer or final user of a product.

Contractual instrument: Any type of contract between two parties for the sale and purchase of energy bundled with attributes about the energy generation, or for unbundled attribute claims. Markets differ as to what contractual instruments are commonly available or used by companies to purchase energy or claim specific attributes about it, but they can include energy attribute certificates (RECs, GOs, etc), direct contracts (for both low-carbon, renewable or fossil fuel generation), supplier-specific emission rates, and other default emission factors representing the untracked or unclaimed energy and emissions (termed the residual mix) if a company does not have other contractual information that meet the Scope 2 Quality Criteria.

Control: The ability of a company to direct the policies of another operation. More specifically, it is defined as either operational control (the organization or one of its subsidiaries has the full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies at the operation) or financial control (the organization has the ability to direct the financial and operating policies of the operation with a view to gaining economic benefits from its activities).

Direct emissions: Emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting company.

Dispatch: The coordination of power plant operations in order to meet the load on a grid. A “dispatchable” power plant is one that can be directly called upon by grid operators to produce power, and whose output can be modulated in response to real-time fluctuations in demand for electricity.

Distributed generation: Decentralized, grid-connected, or off-grid energy facilities located in or near the place where energy is used.

Double counting: Two or more reporting companies claiming the same emissions or reductions in the same scope, or a single company reporting the same emissions in multiple scopes.

Electric utility: An electric power company whose operations may include generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale. Also called electricity or energy supplier.

Eligibility criteria: Features or conditions defined by a policy or program that determine which energy generation facilities can participate in the program or whose certificates will fulfill programmatic requirements.

Emission factor: A factor that converts activity data into GHG emissions data (e.g., kg CO2e emitted per liter of fuel consumed, kg CO2e emitted per kilometer traveled, etc.).

Emissions: The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Energy: Formally, energy is defined as the amount of work a physical system can do on another. In this Guidance, energy refers to electrical energy generated by power plants and delivered to energy users over a power grid.

Energy attribute certificate: A category of contractual instruments used in the energy sector to convey information about energy generation to other entities involved in the sale, distribution, consumption, or regulation of electricity. This category includes instruments that may go by several different names, including certificates, tags, credits, etc.

Energy generation facility: Any technology or device that generates energy for consumer use, including everything from utility-scale fossil fuel power plants to rooftop solar panels.

Equity investment: A share of equity interest in an entity. The most common form is common stock. Equity entitles the holder to a pro rata ownership in the company.

Equity share approach: A consolidation approach whereby a company accounts for GHG emissions from operations according to its share of equity in the operation. The equity share reflects economic interest, which is the extent of rights a company has to the risks and rewards flowing from an operation.

Feed-in tariff: A policy mechanism offering a fixed price to renewable energy producers for output.

Finance lease: A lease that transfers substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to the lessee and is accounted for as an asset on the balance sheet of the lessee. Also known as a capital or financial lease. Leases other than capital/financial/finance leases are operating leases.

Financial control: The ability to direct the financial and operating policies of an entity with a view to gaining economic benefits from its activities.

Financial control approach: A consolidation approach whereby a company accounts for 100 percent of the GHG emissions over which it has financial control. It does not account for GHG emissions from operations in which it owns an interest but does not have financial control.

Fuel mix disclosure: A report by energy suppliers to their consumers disclosing the generation resources and associated attributes (such as GHG emissions and nuclear waste quantities) provided by that supplier. Disclosure laws often aim to enable informed customer choice in deregulated or liberalized markets.

Generation: The electrical energy produced by a power plant or project activity.

GHG program: A generic term for: (1) any voluntary or mandatory, government or nongovernment initiative, system, or program that registers, certifies, or regulates GHG emissions; or (2) any authorities responsible for developing or administering such initiatives, systems, or programs.

GHG project: A specific activity or set of activities intended to reduce GHG emissions, increase the storage of carbon, or enhance GHG removals from the atmosphere. A GHG project may be a standalone project or a component of a larger non-GHG project.

Global warming potential: A factor describing the radiative forcing impact (degree of harm to the atmosphere) of (GWP) one unit of a given GHG relative to one unit of CO2.

Green power: A generic term for renewable energy sources and specific clean energy technologies that emit fewer GHG emissions relative to other sources of energy that supply the electric grid. Includes solar photovoltaic panels, solar thermal energy, geothermal energy, landfill gas, low-impact hydropower, and wind turbines. Resources included in a given certification, reporting, or recognition program may vary.

Green power product/green tariff: A consumer option offered by an energy supplier distinct from the “standard” offering. These are often renewables or other low-carbon energy sources, supported by energy attribute certificates or other contracts.

Greenhouse gas inventory: A quantified list of an organization’s GHG emissions and sources.

Greenhouse gases (GHG): For the purposes of this standard, GHGs are the seven gases covered by the UNFCCC: carbon dioxide (CO2); methane (CH4); nitrous oxide (N2O); hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); perfluorocarbons (PFCs); sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen triflouride (NF3).

Grid: A system of power transmission and distribution (T&D) lines under the control of a coordinating entity or “grid operator,” which transfers electrical energy generated by power plants to energy users—also called a “power grid.” The boundaries of a power grid are determined by technical, economic, and regulatory-jurisdictional factors.

Grid operator: The entity responsible for implementing procedures to dispatch a set of power plants in a given area to meet demand for electricity in real time. The precise institutional nature of the grid operator will differ from system to system. The grid operator may be alternately referred to as a “system dispatcher,” “control area operator,” “independent system operator,” or “regional transmission organization,” etc.

Indirect GHG emissions: Emissions that are a consequence of the operations of the reporting company, but occur at sources owned or controlled by another company. This includes scope 2 and scope 3.

Intensity target: A target defined by reduction in the ratio of emissions and a business metric over time e.g., reduce CO2 per metric ton of cement by 12 percent between 2000 and 2008.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): An international body of climate change scientists. The role of the IPCC is to assess the scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change

Inventory boundary: An imaginary line that encompasses the direct and indirect emissions included in the inventory. It results from the chosen organizational and operational boundaries.

Inventory quality: The extent to which an inventory provides a faithful, true, and fair account of an organization’s GHG emissions.

Jurisdiction: A geopolitical region under a single legal and regulatory authority. For market boundaries for certificate use and trading described in this guidance, jurisdictions are typically countries but may be multi-country regions.

Levy Exemption Certificate (LEC): Certificates used in the U.K. to provide energy suppliers with evidence needed to demonstrate to HMRC that electricity supplied to U.K. business customers is exempt from the Climate Change Levy.

Life cycle: Consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or generation of natural resources to end of life.

Life cycle assessment (LCA): Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.

Location-based method for scope 2 accounting: A method to quantify scope 2 GHG emissions based on average energy generation emission factors for defined locations, including local, subnational, or national boundaries.

Market-based Emissions: A table on the GHG Protocol dashboard that illustrates the total Scope 2 energy consumption and market-based contractual instruments that are applied during a selected year. Remaining energy without contractual instruments is also displayed in the table.

Market-based method for scope 2 accounting: A method to quantify scope 2 GHG emissions based on GHG emissions emitted by the generators from which the reporter contractually purchases electricity bundled with instruments, or unbundled instruments on their own.

Megawatt (MW): A unit of electrical power. One megawatt of power output is equivalent to the transfer of one million joules of electrical energy per second to the grid.

Megawatt-hour (MWh): A unit of electrical energy equal to 3.6 billion joules; the amount of energy produced over one hour by a power plant with an output of 1 MW.

Net metering: A method for energy suppliers to credit customers for electricity that they generate on site in excess of their own electricity consumption and sell back to the grid. Any electricity purchases from the gird are deducted (or “netted”) from the generation sent to the grid. The specific financial rules for net metering may vary by country and state.

Null power: Energy from which energy attribute certificates or other instruments have been separated and sold off, leaving the underlying power without specific attributes. Also called “commodity electricity.”

Offset credit: Offset credits (also called offsets, or verified emission reductions) represent the reduction, removal, or avoidance of GHG emissions from a specific project that is used to compensate for GHG emissions occurring elsewhere, for example to meet a voluntary or mandatory GHG target or cap. Offsets are calculated relative to a baseline that represents a hypothetical scenario for what emissions would have been in the absence of the mitigation project that generates the offsets. To avoid double counting, the reduction giving rise to the offset must occur at sources or sinks not included in the target or cap for which it is used.

On-site generation: Electricity generated by a generation facility located where some or all of the energy is used. If the generation facility is owned and operated by the consuming company, it can be called “self-generation.” On-site generation is a form of distributed energy generation.

Operating lease: A lease that does not transfer the risks and rewards of ownership to the lessee and is not recorded as an asset in the balance sheet of the lessee. Leases other than operating leases are capital/financial/finance leases.

Operating margin (OM): The set of existing power plants whose output is reduced in response to a project activity. These power plants are the last to be switched on-line or first to be switched off-line during times when the project activity is operating, and which therefore would have provided the project activity’s generation in the baseline scenario.

Operational boundaries: The boundaries that determine the direct and indirect emissions associated with operations owned or controlled by the reporting company.

Operational control: A consolidation approach whereby a company accounts for 100 percent of the GHG emissions over which it has operational control. It does not account for GHG emissions from operations in which it owns an interest but does not have operational control.

Organizational boundaries: The boundaries that determine the operations owned or controlled by the reporting company, depending on the consolidation approach taken (equity or control approach).

Power purchase agreement (PPA): A type of contract that allows a consumer, typically large industrial or commercial entities, to form an agreement with a specific energy generating unit. The contract itself specifies the commercial terms including delivery, price, payment, etc. In many markets, these contracts secure a long-term stream of revenue for an energy project. In order for the consumer to say they are buying the electricity of the specific generator, attributes shall be contractually transferred to the consumer with the electricity.

Renewable energy: Energy taken from sources that are inexhaustible, e.g. wind, water, solar, geothermal energy, and biofuels.

Renewable energy certificate (REC): A type of energy attribute certificate, used in the U.S. and Australia. In the U.S., a REC is defined as representing the property rights to the generation, environmental, social, and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation.

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS): A state- or national-level policy that requires that a minimum amount (usually a percentage) of electricity supply provided by each supply company is to come from renewable energy.

Residual mix: The mix of energy generation resources and associated attributes such as GHG emissions in a defined geographic boundary left after contractual instruments have been claimed/retired/canceled. The residual mix can provide an emission factor for companies without contractual instruments to use in a market-based method calculation.

Retailer (also retail provider): The entity selling energy to final consumers, representing final process in the delivery of electricity from generation to the consumer. Also known as electric service provider, competitive power supplier or power marketer depending on the national or subnational regulation.

Scope 1 emissions: Emissions from operations that are owned or controlled by the reporting company.

Scope 2 emissions: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat or cooling consumed by the reporting company.

Scope 2 Quality Criteria: A set of requirements that contractual instruments shall meet in order to be used in the market-based method for scope 2 accounting.

Scope 3 emissions: All indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions.

Scope 3 category: One of the 15 types of scope 3 emissions.

Self-generation: On-site generation owned or operated by the entity that consumes the power.

Significance threshold: A qualitative or quantitative criterion used to define a significant structural change. It is the responsibility of the company, GHG program to which the company is reporting, or the company’s verifier to determine the “significance threshold” for considering base-year emissions recalculation. In most cases the “significance threshold” depends on the use of the information, the characteristics of the company, and the features of structural changes.

Supplier: An entity that provides or sells products to another entity (i.e., a customer). For this guidance, refers to electricity supplier.

Supplier quota: Regulations requiring electricity suppliers to source a percentage of their supply from specified energy sources, e.g. Renewable Portfolio Standards in U.S. states. Regulations generally defined eligibility criteria that energy facilities must fulfill in order to be used to demonstrate compliance.

Supplier-specific emission factor: An emission rate provided by an electricity supplier to its customers, reflecting the emissions associated with the energy it provides. Suppliers offering differentiated products (e.g. a renewable energy product) should provide specific emission rates for each product and ensure they are not double counted with standard power offers.

Supply chain: A network of organizations (e.g., manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers) involved in the production, delivery, and sale of a product to the consumer.

Tracking system: A database or registry that helps execute energy attribute certificate issuance and cancellation/retirement/claims between account holders in the system. It can track information on certificates or generation occurring throughout the defined system. They are typically tied to geopolitical or grid operational boundaries.

Unbundled: An energy attribute certificate or other instrument that is separate, and may be traded separately, from the underlying energy produced.

Utility: See electric utility.

Vintage: The date that electric generation occurs and/or was measured, from which an energy attribute certificate is issued. This should be distinguished from an energy facility’s age (e.g. date that a generating unit commenced operation)

Additional terms found in the Cleartrace dashboard:

Excess Procurement: Any amount of contracted energy (MWh) in excess of the Total Consumption value.

Total Consumption: Total energy consumption of the portfolio, with applied filters, for the selected year.

Total Procurement: Total quantity of contracted energy (MWh) of the portfolio, with applied filters, for the selected year.

Dashboarding Terms

Filter: The ability to narrow down the shown results by selected filtering categories, such as choosing to only view data for Data Center property type.

Group By: The Group By functionality allows users to select a data category by which to view the data categorized by, such as viewing energy consumption categorized by property type.