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Electricity Carbon Footprint

Free Electricity Carbon Footprint calculator with clear step-by-step results.

About Electricity Carbon Footprint

Metered consumption understates generation, because roughly 5-10% of electricity is lost in transmission and distribution before it reaches you. Grossing consumption up for those losses, removing any certified renewable share and applying grid intensity gives the emissions genuinely attributable to your supply.

Formulas

Attributable generation

Gross kWh = metered kWh x (1 + T&D losses) x (1 - renewable share)

Footprint

kgCO2e = gross kWh x grid intensity / 1000

Worked example

With the default values below, Electricity Carbon Footprint returns Annual electricity footprint of 1.757. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Electricity usedminimum 0 kWh/month
450 kWh/month
Grid carbon intensityaccepts 0–1,200 gCO2e/kWh
380 gCO2e/kWh
Share supplied from certified renewablesaccepts 0–100 %
20 %
Transmission and distribution lossesaccepts 0–30 %
7 %

Results

Annual electricity footprint
1.757 tCO2e
Monthly footprint
146.38 kgCO2e
Effective intensity of your supply
325.3 gCO2e/kWh
Generation needed at the plant
481.5 kWh

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Attributable generation
  3. 3Footprint
  4. 4Annual electricity footprint= 1.757 tCO2e
  5. 5Monthly footprint= 146.38 kgCO2e
  6. 6Effective intensity of your supply= 325.3 gCO2e/kWh
  7. 7Generation needed at the plant= 481.5 kWh

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I find my grid's intensity?

National grid operators and energy regulators publish it, and it varies enormously - under 50 gCO2e/kWh in hydro or nuclear-dominated grids and over 700 in coal-heavy ones.

Do green tariffs really reduce my footprint?

Under market-based accounting, a certificate-backed tariff does reduce reported emissions. Under location-based accounting it does not, because the physical electrons come from the same grid mix.

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