There are five Purchased Electricity calculation methods to choose from:
Electricity consumption uses your electricity consumption or your electric vehicle consumption. This is our recommended calculation method for both facility electricity consumption and electric vehicle electricity consumption as it provides the most accurate results.
Bring Your Own Emissions allows you to upload your own pre-calculated emissions to the Plan A platform. For more information, see here. Please note that when Bring Your Own Emissions is used to upload Purchased Electricity data, the Plan A Sustainability Platform cannot automatically calculate emissions for Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities (Scope 3). If you use Bring Your Emissions for this category, you will, therefore, also need to do the same for Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities.
The following calculation methods apply only to calculating emissions from electric and hybrid vehicles (BEV and PHEV):
Electric vehicles: Distance driven | Average electricity consumption uses the average electricity consumption of your electric vehicles and the distance driven in.
Electric vehicles: Distance uses distance driven and vehicle type (e.g. van, truck, motorcycle, bike, car) as well as fuel type (i.e. electricity).
Electric vehicles: Distance and mass transported uses distance driven and vehicle type (e.g. van, truck) as well as mass transported. This calculation method is suited for data related to the transportation of goods, but should only be used for transportation using company-operated vehicles. For other transportation, please categorise these as Scope 3 Category 4, Upstream Transportation and Distribution, or Scope 3 Category 9, Downstream Transportation and Distribution.
We recommend calculation methods based on their accuracy but ultimately you should choose a calculation method that fits the data you have access to.
For more information on how to choose a calculation method, read the Choose a Calculation Method article.
Note: For hybrid vehicles (PHEV) combustible fuel (i.e. diesel or petrol) and electricity readings must be separated out. Data relating to petrol or diesel should be accounted for in Scope 1 Mobile Combustion, whereas and data related to electricity should be accounted for in Scope 2 Purchased Electricity.
Similarly, combustion engine vehicles should be accounted for in Scope 1 Mobile Combustion alone.
How should I account for vehicles charged with 100% renewable energy?
Our calculation methods specifically for electric vehicles ('Electric vehicles: Distance driven | Average electricity consumption'; 'Electric vehicles: Distance'; and 'Electric vehicles: Distance and mass transported') assume that vehicles are charged publicly or by charging stations which Guarantees of Origin (GOs), Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) or similar cannot be obtained to verify the origins of the electricity's production.
If, however, you can verify that the vehicle is charged with 100% renewable energy and have data on energy consumption, we recommend using the 'Actual electricity consumption' calculation method.
Note: The only method where you can report electricity consumption from 100% renewable energy sources is the "Actual electricity consumption" method. If you choose one of the others like BYOE, you should expect to see emissions accounted for in your emissions dashboards.
National Averages
When specific data is unavailable, National Averages can be used to calculate emissions for purchased electricity used in your facility. National Averages represent the average values for a given type of activity data within a specific country.
National Averages will be shown automatically when you have uploaded Organisational Data and haven't uploaded any data for Purchased Electricity.
If you don’t want to use National Averages to calculate emissions you can upload a template with the value set to 0 for the respective time and facility.