Everoze develops carbon assessment methodology for DSO flexibility services

Published November 2020

Everoze’s work with Distribution System Operator (DSO) Western Power Distribution is a first for the industry, allowing a comparison of the carbon impacts of different local flexibility technologies.

The study shows that demand side response has the lowest carbon impact of the technologies currently providing DSO services to Western Power Distribution. Domestic demand-side response (DSR) technologies perform especially strongly, with the lifetime carbon impact of EV charging demand reduction amounting to 7 gCO₂e per kWh of DSO service delivered. This is compared to 272 gCO₂e per kWh of DSO service for diesel generators, the dirtiest technology assessed.

The methodology is unique in that it includes carbon impacts arising from the full lifecycle of a technology, including manufacturing and disposal impacts. It has been designed to allow fair comparison of different options for procuring DSO services.

The work is the first benchmark for carbon assessment in flexibility markets. It provides a foundation for future monitoring and reporting of carbon in these markets and could lead to the pricing negative externalities of carbon impacts into DSO service procurement in the future.

Everoze partner Benjamin Lock comments: “It’s fantastic to have had the opportunity to work on this pioneering study. We want to accelerate the transition to net zero, and that requires real understanding of the carbon impact of the technologies we work on, including those in the flexibility space. Knowing what these low-carbon technologies look like, we can work to make flexibility markets, regulation and policy supportive of what’s best for our environment.”

The full report is available on WPD’s website.