Armenian Grid Emmission Factor 2009

Grid CO₂ Emission Factor for the Electricity System of the Republic of Armenia for the year 2009

In October 2009 the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA (MoNP) acting as the Designated National Authority for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM DNA) in Armenia approached the UNDP Armenia with request to assist the Ministry in calculating CO₂ emission factor for the RA electricity system. This initiative was aimed to ease and facilitate development of renewable energy projects under the CDM in Armenia via reducing CDM project development costs associated with data collection and calculation of the country grid emission factor (GEF).

Following the request of MoNP, the group of experts contracted under UNDP/GEF "Enabling Activities for the Preparation of Armenia's Second National Communication to the UNFCCC" project performed calculation of GEF for the Armenian electricity system for the year 2009 in accordance with the appropriate methodology ("Tool to calculate the emission factor for an electricity system", Version 2) approved by the CDM Executive Board at its 50^th session and based on Armenia power sector data and information officially obtained from the relevant state authorities.

Calculations were made by means of MO Excel based calculation model developed by the national experts. The model allows annual update of the GEF depending.

The results of the calculations are presented in the "Calculation of GEF for the Electricity System of RA for the year 2009" document and can be applied for development of CDM project activity where a project activity supplies electricity to a grid (integrated power supply network of Armenia) or a project activity results in savings of electricity that would have been provided by the grid (e.g. demand-side energy efficiency projects).

The methodological tool used for calculation of GEF (a baseline) determines the CO₂ emission factor for the displacement of electricity generated by power plants in an electricity system, by calculating the so-called "combined margin: emission factor (CM) of the electricity system. The CM is the result of a weighted average of two emission factors pertaining to the electricity system: the "operating margin" (OM) and the "build margin" (BM). The operating margin is the emission factor that refers to the group of existing power plants whose current electricity generation would be affected by the proposed CDM project activity. The build margin is the emission factor that refers to the group of prospective power plants whose construction and future operation would be affected by the proposed CDM project activity.

According to the acting CDM procedures, baseline study is a subject to validation by a Designated Operational Entity (DOE). In other words, application of the baseline recommend by the DNA will help project participants to reduce transaction costs associated with baseline development; however, it does not release them from an obligation to validate the baseline once it is used for CDM project activity as a component of Project Design Document (PDD).

Thus, application of this baseline calculation for CDM project activities should be in accordance with the relevant rules and procedures set by the CDM Executive Board as well as with national procedures set by the CDM DNA in Armenia.

GEF presented in this document is recommended by the DNA for development of CDM project activities; however, it is not compulsory for project developers.

According to the applied methodological tool if the data required to calculate the emission factor for year y is only available later than six months after the end of year y, alternatively the emission factor of the previous year (y-1) may be used. Given the mentioned, the CDM project proponents may use the results of GEF calculation for 2009 presented in this study for development of CDM project activities in 2010.

It is assumed that the CDM DNA of Armenia will set an appropriate procedure to continue the practice of GEF calculation for the subsequent years and to update GEF once new data on the power system of Armenia becomes available from the official sources.