Following last year’s publication of the methodology, the residual mix for all countries in which I-REC(E) is available is now published on our website and will be updated yearly.
What is a residual mix?
A residual mix is a country’s generation mix minus the issued Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) of a specific vintage, such as 2023. End-users who have not fully covered their annual electricity consumption by EACs are to use the residual mix.
EACs allocate ownership of specific energy attributes, such as the location, energy source, and generation period of a specific MWh, to a particular end-user. This allows these end-users to make unique and reliable claims about their purchased electricity which they can prove with the redemption statement.
However, in every country, the total issued EACs are far less than the combined consumption of all end-users. This “residue” is the energy mix that is consumed by end-users who have not bought and redeemed EACs. The Residual Mix dashboard provides reliable insight that considers the issued and claimed energy attributes of other end-users. This ensures that every MWh is only being claimed once. It also enables end-users to establish the actual carbon intensity of the energy they consume, as the residual mix is more carbon-heavy when the certificate-covered renewable fraction is subtracted from the generation mix. This makes the residual mix a valuable tool in greenhouse gas accounting.
What is on the dashboard
The dashboard consists of 2 panes: First, a global overview shows the residual mix (in fractions of fossil, nuclear or renewable energy) and the penetration of I-REC(E) and third-party certificate systems, as a percentage of generated energy not covered by certificates. Second, the pane contains the country details. For every country where I-REC(E) are issued, you can see for the years 2020-2023 what the generation mix is, the grid vs; the residual emissions factors and what portion of energy generation is (not) covered by I-REC(E) or third-party certificates.
Further refinement of calculations
‘Our World in Data’ was used as a source for the production data in most countries and the emission factor per energy source in all countries. Due to the unavailability of data, some countries are omitted in the residual mix dashboard. The I-TRACK Foundation welcomes feedback from anyone who can point us to reliable and publicly available data on national annual electricity production data, which is split into years and energy sources. Additional data sources can be suggested using the “submit data” button on the dashboard.
In addition, issuance data from other national EAC systems is not always available but should be considered when calculating the residual mix from a country in which more than one EAC system is active.
Please contact the secretariat at secretariat@trackingstandard.org with questions or support for further improvements to these calculations.