Researchers Luc Cote and Andy Sun, affiliated with the University of California, Santa Barbara, have published a study in the journal *IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy* that explores the use of Locational Marginal Emissions (LMEs) to help data centers reduce their carbon footprint.
The study addresses the challenges faced by current carbon accounting methods for electricity consumption, such as physical deliverability, double counting, additionality, and impact magnitude. LMEs, which represent the emissions intensity of electricity at a specific location and time, offer a promising solution to these issues. However, their application in large-scale power grids has not been extensively studied.
To investigate this, the researchers analyzed LMEs from a data center’s perspective in the Western Interconnection, a large power grid covering much of the western United States, over the course of a year. They found that the grid could be divided into three distinct regions based on LME characteristics. The Pacific Northwest, dominated by hydropower, had low and stable LMEs. The coal-heavy Intermountain West region often had high LMEs. The Sunbelt, with its mix of generation sources, had variable LMEs that were correlated with solar output.
The researchers suggest that this characterization can provide valuable guidance for data centers looking to reduce their emissions. They found that interventions such as temporal-spatial load shifting, strategic siting, and renewable procurement, when guided by LMEs, could achieve over 85% accuracy in terms of actual emission reduction. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of large-scale, nodal grid simulation for accurate evaluation of these strategies.
For the energy industry, this research offers a practical approach to help data centers, which are significant energy consumers, reduce their carbon emissions. By leveraging LMEs, data centers can make more informed decisions about when and where to operate, potentially leading to substantial emission reductions. This could contribute to the broader goal of decarbonizing the power grid and mitigating climate change.
The research was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.