Methods and tools to estimate carbon emission savings from integration of renewable and T&D efficiency improvement

The electricity industry is moving towards the implementation of technologies options to reduce its carbon footprint. With that, the need for a consistent methodology for assessing and verify the emission reduction attributable to technology project arises. This paper first present an overview of different methodologies that are currently used for estimating CO2 emission savings from the integration of renewable generation. The strength and weaknesses of these approaches, and their suitability to asses CO2 avoided emissions from measures to improve transmission and distributing system efficiencies are addressed. A new evaluation methodology based on the EPRI calculation tool, the NESSIE model, is then presented. A simple case study is presented to illustrate its application. Finally, a summary of main conclusions and recommendation for further investigation are presented.