Energy · Scope 2
Scope 2 electricity
Grid electricity is reported twice, location-based and market-based, and each can produce up to four rows. Which publisher prices it depends on where the facility is.
On this page you'll learn
- How the location-based factor is found in the US, UK, Canada and Africa
- How market-based works
- The four rows one meter reading can produce
- Scope
- 2 (losses and upstream in Scope 3)
- Location-based
- eGRID (US), DEFRA (UK), ECCC (Canada), Ember (Africa)
- Market-based
- Supplier factor, or the DESNZ residual mix (UK)
- Category code
purchased_electricity
Location-based, by country
| Facility in | Publisher | Selected by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | US EPA eGRID | eGRID subregion | Five-step chain below |
| United Kingdom | UK DEFRA | UK grid | Northern Ireland is inside; the Republic of Ireland is not |
| Canada | Canada ECCC | Province or territory | Losses already included |
| Africa (55 countries) | Ember | Country and year | Life-cycle figure, AR2 basis |
| Anywhere | IPCC | — | No grid factor, by design |
Order your sources carefully
EPA's chain always ends at the US national average, so it answers for any site it can't place. An organisation listing US EPA before Canada ECCC prices its Canadian sites at the US figure. The settings screen warns about this.
The US eGRID chain
- 1
Utility grid region
If the meter's utility has a known eGRID subregion, use its factor. The most precise result.
- 2
ZIP code
Otherwise, geocode the facility's ZIP code to a state.
- 3
State
Use that state's primary grid subregion.
- 4
Country
Otherwise, a country-level factor.
- 5
US national average
The last resort, recorded on the row as such, never used silently.
The row's resolution method records which step answered, and the table shows it in plain words. Electricity comes from eGRID2023 rev 2 directly, not the Hub's Table 6, because EPA revised eGRID after the Hub was printed: New York City moved −11.3%.
Four rows from one reading
| Row | Scope | UK, DEFRA 2026 (kg CO₂e/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | 2 | 0.13096 |
| Transmission & distribution losses | 3 | 0.01299 |
| Well-to-tank of generation | 3 | 0.03682 |
| Well-to-tank of losses | 3 | 0.00359 |
- Generation: 10,000 × 0.13096
- 1,309.6 kg (Scope 2)
- Losses: 10,000 × 0.01299
- 129.9 kg (Scope 3)
- Total with defaults
- 1,439.5 kg CO₂e
Switching on well-to-tank adds 368.2 kg and 35.9 kg more, both Scope 3. ECCC's figures already include losses and Ember's include upstream, so neither writes those rows.
Market-based
A supplier-declared factor is a contractual figure you enter, not a publisher release, so it doesn't go through the source chain and has no pin. It's a single CO₂e number; Slate leaves the per-gas columns empty instead of filing the total under CO₂. Without a supplier figure, UK electricity uses the DESNZ residual mix.
Normalised MWh
Each electricity row also stores the consumption converted to MWh, shown in the Electricity table, so consumption can be compared across sites entered in different units.