INSIGHT BRIEF: Accounting for impact: Refocusing GHG Protocol scope 2 methodology on ‘impact accounting’

The GHG Protocol (GHGP) — the world’s leading source of carbon accounting standards — has motivated sweeping clean energy investments and carbon reduction or neutrality goals from corporations and institutions worldwide. But are the emissions reductions currently being counted on paper actually translating into real-world environmental impact?

In WattTime’s Accounting for Impact report, we explore the GHGP’s current methods for measuring Scope 2 emissions and propose a new methodology to better align traditional GHG accounting with science-based decision-making tools. Our proposed solution focuses on measuring actual induced emissions caused by electricity consumption and the avoided emissions impact of renewable energy generation using marginal emissions rates. This approach can more effectively and consistently capture what GHG accounting ultimately should be about: measuring progress toward system-wide emissions reductions. By refocusing GHGP’s Scope 2 methodology toward this goal using impact accounting, corporate and institutional sustainability leaders can arrive at higher-impact choices and investments that help them reach a true state of ‘impact neutral’.

Learn more by reading the full report here:
Accounting for Impact: Refocusing GHG Protocol Scope 2 methodology on ‘impact accounting’

FlexCharging integrates WattTime’s Automated Emissions Reduction (AER) into charging software, allows electric vehicles to optimize their smart charging to reduce grid emissions

Redmond, Wash. and Oakland, Calif.—March 10, 2022—Today electric vehicle (EV) smart charging platform FlexCharging announced an exciting new feature available in its app. FlexCharging’s software will now allow EV drivers to prioritize lower grid emissions during their charging sessions. The feature will leverage Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), a solution from environmental tech nonprofit WattTime that allows smart devices—including EVs charging—to sync their electricity use with moments of cleaner energy while avoiding times when power grid emissions are higher.

“We know that EV drivers are highly motivated to make a positive environmental impact,” explained Laura McCarty, COO of FlexCharging. “This new feature in our app puts more power in the hands of EV drivers to shrink their carbon footprint even further, while also saving on electricity costs.”

FlexCharging’s app already allows EV drivers to optimize their charging sessions to minimize electricity costs and/or to charge using their home’s rooftop solar PV energy. The additional ability to prioritize charging to avoid times of dirtier grid electricity incorporates a powerful new feature into the platform. Just-released analysis from RMI, More EVs, Fewer Emissions, found that charging EVs on all grids across the United States is cleaner than driving a gasoline-fueled car, but that smart charging can make EVs even cleaner by further reducing the grid emissions associated with their electricity use. (WattTime and FlexCharging both provided data for RMI’s analysis.)

“Smart EV charging is an incredible opportunity to support the clean energy transition,” said Christy Lewis, Director of Analysis at WattTime. “We applaud FlexCharging for taking a leading role with a solution that makes it easy for drivers: they set their preferences in the app, start their next charge session, and walk away. FlexCharging’s platform handles the rest. Drivers return to a charged battery and a lower carbon footprint.”

The FlexCharging app is compatible with EVs from nearly a dozen major automakers, including Tesla, Nissan, Ford, Chevy, and Volkswagen, with new makes and models being added to the platform soon. The app is also applicable to EV fleet owners and operators such as cities, as well as utilities, corporations, and other organizations interested in harnessing managed charging to reduce their total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint.

About FlexCharging

FlexCharging is a no-hardware Electric Vehicle (EV) data collection and managed charging app and platform. It allows EV drivers and utilities to partner to manage EV charging to reduce peak EV loads, reduce peaking capacity needs and demonstrate to utilities and customers the results of utility programs' reduction in GHG emissions and power costs. FlexCharging provides EV charging, driving and 'dwell' data that provides important insights to utilities (e.g., charge location, time, amount, type of charge, etc.) and runs an optimization algorithm to manage charging to meet driver needs and utility program constraints.

About WattTime

WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and the planet.

REsurety and WattTime partner to increase accessibility to high-quality marginal carbon emissions data

Enhanced power grid insights will enable more effective investments in renewables, storage, and load siting

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES, November 2, 2021 -- Today clean energy analytics firm REsurety and environmental tech nonprofit WattTime announced a partnership to increase access to more comprehensive and granular carbon emissions data across U.S. and international markets. Through this partnership, they will leverage their respective strengths in measuring marginal carbon emissions to provide previously unavailable depth and breadth of visibility into the carbon impact of clean energy projects and load centers. This helps companies consider the resulting impact of their energy-related procurement options and understand which choices offer the greatest benefit to the environment.

REsurety first unveiled its Locational Marginal Emissions (LME) data product in July 2021 with the support of major developers, investors, and corporates. LME empowers customers to measure and maximize how much carbon they cut through clean energy purchases. REsurety currently offers nodal LME data for the ERCOT (Texas) market. Through this new integration of WattTime’s regional emissions dataset, REsurety will also be able to provide regional marginal emissions rates across the entire continental United States as well as international power grids including Europe and Australia.

“LME data enables companies to measure the impact of their existing clean energy purchases with unrivaled accuracy and confidence, and empowers them to maximize the carbon impact of their future investments,” said Lee Taylor, founder and CEO of REsurety. “We are thrilled to have found a like-minded partner in WattTime as we work together to maximize our collective decarbonization impact.”

WattTime invented Automated Emissions Reduction (AER) software, which enables the shifting of flexible electricity loads to periods of cleaner energy and away from moments of dirtier energy, based on the time-specific marginal emissions rates in different grid balancing areas. In recent years, WattTime has also popularized “emissionality,” the practice of using the location-specific avoided emissions benefits of different renewable energy projects in the selection process. With WattTime’s help, organizations including Boston University, solar developer Clearloop, steel producer Nucor, and tech giant Salesforce have all incorporated emissionality into their renewable energy strategies.

“With the growing urgency of the climate crisis and organizations’ desire to maximize the positive impact of their sustainability strategies and investments, REsurety and their LME platform offer a powerful tool to evaluate potential projects,” said Henry Richardson, senior analyst at WattTime. “We’re proud to support REsurety and enhance the emissions intelligence they are able to provide.”

LMEs bring a new level of precision and accuracy to measuring the carbon abated or created at any given moment and at any given location on the grid. By calculating the carbon emissions at each node on the grid with hourly granularity, REsurety’s LME product offers, for the first time, visibility into the project-specific carbon impact of each clean energy purchase or investment. By integrating WattTime’s emissions data into its platform, REsurety will be able to provide its clients with regional marginal emissions data in areas where the nodal LME data is not yet available, thereby greatly expanding the geographic coverage of the platform.

About REsurety
REsurety is the leading analytics company empowering the clean energy economy. Operating at the intersection of weather, power markets, and financial modeling, we enable the industry’s decision makers to thrive by providing best-in-class value and risk intelligence, and the tools to act on it. With the world’s most sophisticated clean energy investors, advisors, buyers, and developers as clients and 7,000 MW of transactions closed, REsurety empowers clients to thrive in the dynamic, complex, clean energy-fueled future. For more information, visit www.resurety.com or follow REsurety on LinkedIn.

About WattTime
WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good, including Automated Emissions Reduction and emissionality. WattTime is also the convening member and cofounder of the global Climate TRACE coalition. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and the planet. For more information, visit https://watttime.org.

Peter Kelley
RenewComm LLC
+1 202-270-8831
peter@renewcomm.com

Hemlock Semiconductor, Consumers Energy, and WattTime reduce grid emissions through industrial load shifting

Saginaw, Mich. and Oakland, Calif.—October 28, 2021—Today Hemlock Semiconductor Operations, LLC (HSC), a manufacturer of hyper-pure polysilicon for the electronic and solar power industries, announced it has collaborated with Michigan energy provider Consumers Energy and environmental tech nonprofit WattTime to reduce grid emissions through industrial load shifting. At full production, HSC is the largest single-site user of electricity in the state of Michigan and the largest customer of Consumers Energy.

HSC worked with WattTime to assess the ability to use WattTime’s Automated Emissions Reduction (AER) technology to adjust the timing of its flexible electricity demand to sync with moments of cleaner energy. In tandem, Consumers Energy developed a rate that included both real-time pricing and demand-based attributes to further encourage demand flexibility. Based on WattTime analysis, this industrial load shifting could help HSC reduce CO2 emissions by up to ~2,500 metric tons annually, equivalent to eliminating more than 6 million miles driven by a passenger car or not burning more than 2.7 million pounds of coal.

“We are proud of our ongoing sustainability efforts and are excited about how shifting some of our energy demand can further reduce emissions and help incorporate more renewables on Michigan’s grid,” explained Phil Rausch, Solar Commercial Manager at 

HSC. “Plus, as a member of the Ultra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance, we remain focused on doing our part to decarbonize all parts of the solar energy supply chain, including the polysilicon we supply to the solar industry.”

Industrial load shifting with a company like HSC can be a powerful tool for Michigan’s grid (which is part of MISO) as it rapidly transitions to higher amounts of renewable energy. In June 2021 Consumers Energy announced an updated plan to retire all coal-fired generation by 2025, 15 years ahead of its original schedule. This comes as part of Consumers Energy’s updated Clean Energy Plan, which calls for 1,100 MW of new solar capacity by 2024 and nearly 8,000 MW of new solar by 2040.

“Our work with HSC shows how energy-intensive customers can contribute meaningfully to our Clean Energy Plan while also keeping costs competitive,” said Brian Rich, Consumers Energy’s senior vice president of customer experience. “For example, as Consumers Energy adds new solar capacity to Michigan’s grid, HSC could be an important flexible demand anchor for incorporating that solar, especially with seasonal load shifting to help absorb solar generation in the spring and fall when residential and commercial electricity demand is lower.”

WattTime’s analysis went further, and found even greater emissions-reduction opportunities by applying HSC’s degree of industrial load shifting to other grids, such as California (CAISO) and the Great Plains (SPP). Industrial demand flexibility in these regions offer substantial emissions-reduction potential of up to 34% vs. baseline emissions associated with the shifted load, approximately 10x greater emissions savings on a percentage basis and 8x greater on an absolute emissions basis than what is achievable in the Great Lakes region (MISO) today. As more renewables are built in Michigan in the years ahead, we’d expect to see similar opportunities there for HSC and other industrial customers.

“Hemlock Semiconductor and Consumers Energy are showing how industrial loads can add needed flexibility to power grids, helping to reduce emissions and integrate more renewables in the process,” concluded Laura Corso, managing director of partnerships at WattTime. “What’s possible in Michigan currently is just the tip of the iceberg. Regions such as California and the Great Plains today show even greater emissions-reduction potential, and they reflect what will be possible in Michigan in the near future—sizable emissions reductions that accelerate the clean energy transition during this decisive decade of climate action.”

To learn more about the collaboration between Hemlock Semiconductor, Consumers Energy, and WattTime—and the emissions-reduction potential of industrial load shifting—please download their new joint white paper, Powering the Future: Harnessing Industrial Demand Flexibility to Reduce Emissions and Integrate Renewables (EXECUTIVE SUMMARY | FULL REPORT).

ABOUT THE PARTNERS

Hemlock Semiconductor is a producer of hyper pure polycrystalline silicon, providing the key feedstock for the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries. As the single largest consumer of electricity in the state of Michigan, HSC is dedicated to reducing its carbon emissions. HSC participates in existing market programs concerning MISO Demand Response and engages in load shifting in accordance with market programs and time of use pricing. Recently HSC's efforts were recognized as Project of the Year by the Michigan EIBC (Energy Innovation Business Council) for work in shifting electrical consumption from on-peak to off-peak periods, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has also designated HSC as a Clean Corporate Citizen (C3). Learn more about HSC at www.hscpoly.com.

Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.8 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties Learn more at www.consumersenergy.com.

WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good, including Automated Emissions Reduction and emissionality. WattTime is also the convening member and cofounder of the global Climate TRACE coalition. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and planet.

GreenFront Energy Partners and WattTime partner to advance emissionality

Joint effort will unlock greater emissions reductions by enabling renewable PPAs to target grid regions where clean energy can displace more fossil-fueled emissions

Wind turbines in agricultural field with WattTime and GreenFront logos

Richmond, Va. and Oakland, Calif.—October 12, 2021—Today clean energy-focused investment banking and advisory firm GreenFront Energy Partners and environmental tech nonprofit WattTime announced a new partnership to advance emissionality as an offering for GreenFront’s clients. Emissionality brings an additional lens to renewable energy procurement, by enabling investors and offtakers to identify which solar and wind projects can achieve the greatest emissions reductions, by displacing more fossil-fueled generation on dirtier grids. This will directly enhance GreenFront’s PPA Advisory practice, which represents corporate buyers in their renewable energy procurement efforts.

“Each energy buyer comes to the table with a different set of goals and priorities for their renewable energy procurement, from economic considerations to social and community impact, to environmental variables,” explained Adam Hahn, GreenFront Energy Partners. “But more and more, we’re seeing growing emphasis on maximizing beneficial climate impact, by signing renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) for those solar and wind projects that achieve greater emissions reductions. Through our partnership with WattTime, we’re able to bring industry-leading emissionality insights to our clients.”

GreenFront and WattTime previously collaborated in support of Nucor, the largest steel producer in North America. GreenFront’s PPA Advisory helped Nucor evaluate a large portfolio of responses to its renewable energy RFP, and brought in WattTime to conduct an emissionality analysis to better understand the avoided emissions benefits of a set of finalists. WattTime has also worked with organizations ranging from Boston University to Salesforce to incorporate emissionality into their renewables procurement strategies.

“The growing adoption of emissionality is an exciting trend in corporate renewables procurement,” said Laura Corso, managing director of partnerships at WattTime. “Companies looking to maximize the emissions-reduction benefits of their renewable energy investments understand that not all solar and wind projects are created equally. We couldn’t be more excited for this partnership with GreenFront . With the urgency of the climate crisis, GreenFront is better-positioned than ever to help their clients focus their investments where they can achieve impact.”

For more information about emissionality and GreenFront’s PPA Advisory practice, please visit www.greenfrontenergy.com.

About GreenFront Energy Partners
GreenFront Energy Partners is an investment banking firm that specializes in alternative energy financial advisory. GreenFront’s service offering includes buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory and debt and equity capital raising, as well as PPA advisory services.

About WattTime
WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good, including Automated Emissions Reduction and emissionality. WattTime is also the convening member and cofounder of the global Climate TRACE coalition. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and the planet.

Nest Renew from Google harnesses WattTime tech to help Nest thermostat users to prioritize clean energy automatically

Oakland, Calif.—October 6, 2021—Ever since smart thermostats first hit the market over a decade ago, Google’s Nest series has consistently remained an industry leader on ‘best’ lists. Today environmental tech nonprofit WattTime announced that it has partnered with Nest Renew from Google to help make it easier to participate in energy programs and support a clean energy future. This new service for compatible Nest thermostats is rolling out in early preview by invitation in the coming weeks.

Since 2011, Google estimates that Nest thermostats have reduced customers’ energy use by more than 80 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). That’s in large part through energy conservation, such as automatically switching into ‘away’ mode when Nest detects that a residence is unoccupied. It’s also through Rush Hour Rewards, Nest’s residential demand response program, which is now active in over 80 markets across the country.

Nest Renew goes a step further. It was built on the premise that Nest thermostats can do more than just help use less energy, but also help support power grids in running on clean energy. Powered by WattTime’s Automated Emissions Reduction (AER) signal, Nest Renew helps users automatically shift their heating and cooling electricity use to times when energy is cleaner, such as when there’s surplus solar or wind energy on the nearby power grid. This practice can help avoid emissions and also support the growth of clean energy.

Nest Renew subscribers will also have access to a near real-time view of the marginal carbon intensity of their grid, helping them understand how grid emissions change throughout the day and empowering them to make more informed choices about when to use energy at home.

“Electricity isn’t always the same: it’s powered by cleaner sources at some times versus others. But it’s not as if wall outlets come labeled with which times are which,” said Gavin McCormick, executive director of WattTime. “Nest Renew from Google is a gamechanger on this front in two important ways: For one, it’s making it transparent when exactly energy is cleaner on our power grids. But also, it’s doing something really remarkable by making it possible for thermostat users to automatically adjust their usage to support clean energy without interrupting our daily routines or compromising comfort. I’m amazed by how effortless it is.”

Air conditioning alone accounts for 10% of all U.S. electricity demand.  This makes the Nest Renew from Google announcement an exciting opportunity, both for educating and empowering customers, and for supporting the U.S. power grid’s move towards operating on renewable energy. Electricity use and any associated pollution is no longer a ‘take it or leave it’ proposition for customers. They now have greater ability to choose which electricity they want to use, based on how clean it is at different times. WattTime analysis shows widespread adoption of AER technology worldwide could reduce over 3.3 billion tons of CO2 by 2030.

Nest Renew Basic will be available across the continental U.S., with Nest Renew Premium in select U.S. markets and expanding over time. For more information, visit the Nest Renew from Google website.

Nest Renew requires the 3rd generation Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Thermostat E, or the newest Nest Thermostat connected to a Google account (sold separately). Features based on WattTime AER will be available in areas served by major continental U.S. grids. Some Nest Renew features require a Nest Renew $10/month subscription. Available in select locations.

About WattTime
WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good, including Automated Emissions Reduction and emissionality. WattTime is also the convening member and cofounder of the global Climate TRACE coalition. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and the planet.

WHITE PAPER: To Drive More Authentic Impact, Faster, Look at the Consequences of Your Choices and Actions

Let’s face it. The latest UN International Panel on Climate Change report is grim. Our planet is in real trouble.

But as the sheer magnitude and urgency of the climate crisis becomes ever clearer, we at WattTime see one piece of real genuine hope on the horizon. Over the past year, there has been a quiet sea change in corporations and other institutions starting to ask what the true emissions benefits of their strategies, investments, and actions are. 

Because it is so critical that organizations succeed in this important goal, we are proud to partner with the other leading global provider of highly detailed electricity emissions data, in writing a new joint briefing on this issue. Together with Tomorrow, the folks who created Electricity Map, we’re jointly releasing A vision for how ambitious organizations can accurately measure electricity emissions to take genuine action. We focus specifically on the emissions associated with electricity, commonly referred to as Scope 2 emissions in GHG reporting.

What’s in the briefing? Long story short: to measure GHG emissions from electricity, organizations somewhat surprisingly face two different questions. And spoiler alert: one of those questions is more important than the other when it comes to measuring true impact and achieving larger system-wide emissions reductions sooner. Those two questions are:

At first glance, these might appear to be variations on the same question. But answering them accurately requires using two different frameworks: the attributional framework (answering the first question) and the consequential framework (answering the second). And it turns out that the seemingly subtle difference between these two frameworks actually really matters.

The attributional framework (most often associated with the scope emissions in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard) accounts for an entity’s emissions inventory or footprint. It essentially focuses on assigning responsibility for emissions to different institutions.

But it doesn’t always provide as much insight on how to fix climate change. Because by relentlessly focusing on only the emissions that a company “owns”, the attributional framework can leave us blind to the effect of one organization’s actions on actual global emissions outside of that organization’s boundary. That’s where the consequential framework comes in.

The consequential framework quantifies the actual emissions impact of different actions or interventions, allowing organizations to optimize their investments to achieve greater real-world emissions reductions. Whether it’s deciding when to use electricity, where to site a wind farm, or even adopting energy efficiency measures, these choices affect other grid users, too. So, when one is looking at emissions data and deciding what to do, whether one considers the global emissions effect or not can actually heavily change what strategies look best.

Consider a company that is based in a grid powered entirely by natural gas. If it moved part of its operation to a grid that is powered 2/3 by nuclear, and 1/3 by coal, what happened to its emissions? From an attributional perspective, it has lowered its own carbon footprint because it has the right to claim a share of that clean nuclear energy in its carbon accounting. But from a consequential perspective, will the nuclear power plants change their output to accommodate the newcomer? Not likely. It’s the coal plants that will ramp up to power the newcomer. So total global emissions will actually go up, not down. 

“Only one thing will stop climate change: if all of us collectively somehow find a way to lower total global emissions by about 36 billion tons of CO2 each year. The fact is, my avoided emissions help you and yours help me. And optimizing sustainability strategies to measure and maximize the emissions consequences of our actions for everyone, doesn’t just affect our own individual inventories, it can often make it possible for sustainability teams to generate around 2 to 3 times as much real-world emissions savings for the same total cost and effort,” said Gavin McCormick, WattTime Executive Director.

When measuring electricity emissions, the GHG Protocol stipulates that companies must report their inventory using the attributional framework (e.g. GHGP Corporate Standard), and may also report their avoided emissions using the consequential framework (e.g. GHGP Project Protocol). At Tomorrow and WattTime, we recommend measuring and reporting both while seeking to utilize the most scientifically sound methods available to do so. The consequential framework can help organizations maximize the real world emissions benefit of their actions.

"Attributional and consequential methods are both necessary for managing responsibility, yet to date attributional methods have been the dominant focus for companies' GHG reporting," explains Matthew Brander, senior lecturer in carbon accounting at the University of Edinburgh. "But in today's day and age, corporations are increasingly focused on ensuring that their actions and investments achieve bigger and faster emissions reductions, not just for their own carbon footprint, but for the system as a whole. That's where consequential methods can add real insight to their strategies."

"Consequential and attributional accounting are complicated concepts that are sometimes conflated," added Olivier Corradi, founder and CEO of Tomorrow. "Given the recently increased ambitions of major organisations and governments, we felt the urge to create a document that acts as a guide for organisations that want to drive real and tangible impact. It felt important to partner up with WattTime in order to have a strong and unified voice on the topic."

To learn more, please download the white paper.

CPower Partners with WattTime to Supercharge Emissions-reduction Benefits of Demand Response

Baltimore and Oakland, Calif.— April 22, 2021— Today, in recognition of the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, CPower Energy Management (“CPower”) and nonprofit WattTime jointly announced a partnership to evaluate and strengthen the emissions-reduction benefits of CPower’s demand response solutions. CPower is a leading, national energy solutions provider that serves more than 1,700 commercial and industrial customers across more than 11,000 sites and manages more than 4 gigawatts (GW) of electricity load across North American utilities and energy markets. WattTime is the inventor of Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), software intelligence that allows utilities, IoT device and energy storage companies, and end users to shift the timing of flexible electricity use to sync with times of cleaner energy and avoid times of dirtier energy.

In 2020, CPower customers curtailed their grid demand in nearly 20,000 events spread across six independent system operator (ISO) regions, totaling 11.5 GWh of load reduction, when the grid needed it most. Based on WattTime analysis, this corresponded to an emissions reduction of nearly 7,000 metric tons CO2 on average for demand response events. This is equivalent to eliminating the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with more than 7 million pounds of coal burned.

“In these cases, demand response was dispatched primarily for economic or grid reliability purposes. Even then, our analysis showed that CPower’s load curtailment solutions achieved significant emissions reductions through reduced demand on high-emitting resources,” explained Gavin McCormick, Executive Director of WattTime. “Looking forward, we’re especially excited about what more is possible in partnership with CPower. For example, increasing demand response dispatch to include additional events based on a marginal GHG signal—versus purely an economic or grid reliability signal—could further increase emissions savings.”

John Horton, President and CEO, CPower, added: “As a company, our demand-side management solutions span demand response, energy efficiency, distributed generation, energy storage, and peak load reduction. They all have roles to play decarbonizing power grids as part of the low-carbon energy transition. In partnership with WattTime, we’ll be exploring how we can deliver even stronger emissions-reduction benefits to our customers throughout North America.”

About CPower Energy Management
CPower Energy Management is a leading, national energy solutions provider guiding customers towards a clean and dependable energy future. We maximize the value of our customers' electricity loads, facility assets and distributed energy resources. Since launching in 2007, we’ve grown to offer more than 50 local energy programs partnering with grid operators and utilities to more than 11,000 sites across North America, delivering approximately 7,000 metric tons of CO2 reductions in 2020 alone. Our presence across five deregulated utility markets allows us to manage more than 4.2 GW of customer capacity and provide energy to the grid in North America when it's needed most. CPower is based in Baltimore, Maryland and is owned by LS Power, a development, investment and operating company focused on the power and energy infrastructure sector. For more information, visit: www.cpowerenergymanagement.com.

About WattTime
WattTime empowers global citizens—people, organizations, utilities, countries—to slash emissions and use cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers and now a subsidiary of RMI, we are a modern-day hybrid of an environmental nonprofit and cutting-edge software company. We research and develop data-driven tools that increase environmental and social good. We invented Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), software that allows IoT devices like smart thermostats and electric vehicles to effortlessly and automatically run on cleaner energy. We popularized emissionality, a technique to achieve greater avoided emissions from new renewable energy projects. And we co-founded the global coalition Climate TRACE, enabling more meaningful climate action by harnessing remote sensing and software intelligence to independently monitor human-caused GHG emissions in near real time. During the massive energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ to realize deeper, faster emissions reductions that benefit people and planet.

Contact
Peter Bronski, Inflection Point Agency for WattTime
+1.201.575.5545 | peterbronski@inflectionpointagency.com

Amy Nunnemacher
Senior Mgr, Corp Communications and Media, CPower
720-617-0877 | pr@cpowerenergymanagement.com

WattTime Executive Director Gavin McCormick named to Environment+Energy Leader 100 List

Oakland, Calif.—11 December 2020—Today WattTime announced that co-founder and executive director Gavin McCormick has been named to the 2020 Environment+Energy Leader 100 list (E+E 100). This fourth annual E+E 100 recognizes “those environment and energy ‘doers’ who break trail in creating new solutions, programs, platforms, best practices and products to help their companies—or other companies—achieve greater success in commercial and industrial environment and energy management.”

“There are so many smart, passionate people doing great work in the broad arena of corporate sustainability. I’m honored to be in their company as part of the 2020 list,” said McCormick. “But this is really more a testament to the work of the entire team at WattTime—and our partners. Today’s era of climate action seems to be increasingly driven by team collaboration, like the hundreds of scientists around the world from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.”

This year’s diverse honorees come from companies representing the energy sector (3Degrees, Ameresco, Edison Energy, Enel, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Schneider Electric), transportation (Airbus, Cathay Pacific, General Motors, Rivian), finance (Mastercard, Wells Fargo), food and beverage (Anheuser-Busch, Clif Bar, HEB, Jackson Family Wines, Kroger, Perdue Farms, Tim Hortons, Xanterra), big box and virtual retailers (Amazon, The Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart), NGOs (Billion Oyster Project, Carbon Disclosure Project, World Resources Institute), and beyond (Comcast NBCUniversal, DaVita, Procter & Gamble, Trane, Verizon, Whirlpool).

McCormick’s E+E 100 recognition comes on the heels of Climate TRACE—of which WattTime is a cofounder—being named to TIME’s list of Best Inventions of 2020.

About WattTime
WattTime is a nonprofit with a software tech startup DNA, dedicated to giving everyone everywhere the power to choose clean energy. We invented Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), which allows utilities, IoT device and energy storage companies, and any end user to effortlessly reduce emissions from energy, when and where they happen. Our cutting-edge insights and algorithms, coupled with machine learning, can shift the timing of flexible electricity use to sync with times of cleaner energy and avoid times of dirtier energy. We sell solutions that make it easy for anyone to achieve emissions reductions without compromising cost and user experience. WattTime was founded by PhD researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2017 became a subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Institute. WattTime is a founding member of Climate TRACE, a global coalition working together to monitor nearly all human-caused GHG emissions worldwide independently and in real time.

CONTACT
Peter Bronski, Inflection Point Agency for WattTIme+1.201.575.5545 | peterbronski@inflectionpointagency.com

WattTime Partners with Salesforce to Incorporate ‘Emissionality’ into Renewable Energy Procurement Strategy

Oakland, Calif.—October 21, 2020—Today environmental tech nonprofit WattTime announced that Salesforce.com, Inc. (Salesforce) has begun incorporating emissionality, a practice developed by the nonprofit, as a key criteria in its renewable energy procurement strategy. Emissionality is a technique to make large-scale renewable energy projects even more impactful by deliberately siting them in locations where building new renewables displaces particularly polluting power plants. This strategic shift is highlighted in Salesforce’s new white paper, More Than A Megawatt: Embedding Social & Environmental Impact in the Renewable Energy Procurement Process. WattTime previously applied the emissionality approach with Boston University and others to help the university maximize the positive impact of a renewable energy power purchase agreement.

“Since 2012, the scientific consensus has been clear that some renewable energy projects drive up to three times more positive environmental impact than others. Salesforce just became the first major renewable energy buyer to publicly outline how it is incorporating that science into its renewable procurement decision-making,” said Gavin McCormick, WattTime Executive Director. “This is an incredibly heartening development for environmentalists everywhere. It makes sense it would be Salesforce. They were an early leader in the corporate renewable energy movement—setting a 100% renewable energy target back in 2013—and now they’ve stepped out in front once again with a compelling articulation of the role of emissionality in the renewable energy procurement process.”

Emissionality works by analyzing what will happen on the grid in response to different potential new renewable energy projects being built. One of the most-important factors is the location-specific grid mix where new renewable capacity is built and how their addition influences avoided emissions and human health benefits from displacing dirty fossil-fueled generation. Based on analysis from WattTime and other organizations, Salesforce will now consider which potential purchases would have the greatest benefit to the environment and human health—among several important criteria—before making renewable energy purchases. Because some projects can be far more environmentally beneficial than others, this approach will make it possible for Salesforce to  ‘supercharge’ the environmental impact of every renewable energy purchase the company makes.

For example, a recent WattTime analysis found that electricity from a solar project built in West Virginia could have 3x greater impact than electricity from an almost identical project built in California. If widely adopted, the technique has potential to drive considerable environmental impact. A separate WattTime analysis found that if forecasted new renewable energy capacity worldwide began deliberately building in the highest-impact locations, this change would save a United States’ worth of emissions.

“As a company, we’ve been taking a hard look at what makes ‘the best’ renewable energy project,” explained Megan Lorenzen, sustainability manager at Salesforce. “Purchasing renewable energy is about much more than adding new megawatts of renewable energy to the grid. It's about improving the state of the world, which includes considering  a number of factors such as land use impacts, wildlife impacts, equity issues, community benefits, and WattTime’s emissionality work, which spans both avoided emissions from a climate perspective and human health considerations for air pollution.”

Salesforce partnered with WattTime, the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, CERES, the Nature Conservancy, and others on its More Than A Megawatt strategy.

About WattTime
WattTime is a nonprofit with a software tech startup DNA, dedicated to giving everyone everywhere the power to choose cleaner energy. We invented Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), a technique to reduce the carbon footprint of IoT devices and energy storage equipment; and pioneered emissionality, a technique to increase the emissions benefits of renewable energy.

We power these technologies with cutting-edge insights and algorithms, coupled with machine learning, to shift the timing and place of electricity use and generation to better line up with times and places where it drives the most impact.

WattTime was founded by PhD researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2017 became a subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Institute. WattTime is a founding member of Climate TRACE, a global coalition working together to monitor nearly all human-caused GHG emissions worldwide independently and in real time.

CONTACT
Peter Bronski, Inflection Point Agency for WattTime
1.201.575.5545 | peterbronski@inflectionpointagency.com

Image: Denys Nevozhai | Unsplash