Regional electricity data of U.S.

Question

Hi, I would like to analyze the electricity market in the United States based on regional differences. I found that Ecoinvent only has nine region-electricity data but no region-SPP data (ASCC, FRCC, HICC, MRO, NPCC, RFC, SERC, TRE, WECC). How could we deal with this issue? 

Is there any regional dataset I could use to analyze?

Answer 1

Hello Hellboy,

It seems this dataset is not included in your database. You will encounter this in many cases when making LCA's.

There are a few ways to deal with this. In your case I would use secondary data, either directly or by modelling the secondary data. I found this: https://www.spp.org/about-us/fast-facts/ which is the grid composition of US-SPP of 2022. If you model your own process, with the correct proportions, it will give a decent approximation. If you need extremely precise data, i would call them, and ask for the direct information you need. This would be information like loss through the grid, loss in production, loss through transformation, etc.

However, just modelling the above will give you a good approximation. Good luck.

Comments

Thanks. Your reply inspires me

Answer 2

Ah, good question, actually I do not know. As for the other regions, the electricity production by fuel is different (I think), it is probably not good to just copy from another region. We will check with ecoinvent too.

Comments

Thanks. Ecoinvent replied that the SPP region has been merged into other regions, namely S-MRO (86.3%), US-SERC (10.6%), US-TRE (2.8%), and US-WECC (0.3%). Under this condition, I am trying to find a way to visualize the data.