Concepts and parameters

Electricity Maps develops estimation models that provide estimated data when measured data is not available (delayed or missing).

The isEstimated flag in the returned JSON indicates whether the result is estimated or not, and the estimationMethod field indicates what model was used to generate that estimate.

By default, all endpoints return estimated data for timestamps when measured data is not available. To disable estimations in the returned JSON, the disableEstimations parameter can be set to true.

All Electricity Maps data can be delivered with various temporal granularities.

By default, all endpoints return data with a temporal granularity of 1 hour. The temporalGranularity query parameter controls the temporal granularity of data returned. Possible values are:

• 5_minutes
• 15_minutes
• hourly (default)
• daily (only for past data)
• monthly (only for past data)
• quarterly (only for past data)
• yearly (only for past data)

Each entry represents data for the following time period from the timestamp. For example, hourly data timestamped at 10:00 AM covers the period from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

To calculate the carbon intensity, the flow-traced electricity mix is matched with technology-specific emission factors. We offer two primary types:

• Direct Emission Factors (Operational): These only count the emissions released directly from the operation of the power plant (like burning fuel).
• Life-Cycle Emission Factors: These provide a thorough "cradle-to-grave" accounting. They include emissions from building the power plant, operating it, extracting fuel, and disposal at the end of its life.

The emissionFactorType query parameter controls this.

Possible values are:

• lifecycle
• direct

By default, all carbon intensity endpoints return data computed using life-cycle emission factors.

Electricity Maps uses the flow-tracing methodology to compute the electricity mix and derived signals (renewable energy percentage, carbon intensity, ...) that accurately represent the electricity available on a grid accounting for domestic generation and electricity flows with neighboring grids.

For all signals computed based on the electricity mix, a parameter (that can be called flowtraced or breakdownType depending on the endpoint) can be used to receive data computed on either the domestic generation mix or the calculated flow-traced mix.

Example: If the carbon intensity is computed using the production mix, it represents the amount of emissions for each unit of electricity produced. It does not represent the carbon intensity of electricity available to consumers on the grid. If the carbon intensity is computed using the flow-traced electricity mix, it represents the amount of emissions for each unit of electricity consumed, taking into account all electricity flows across interconnected grids. Sometimes, a significant share of grid emissions come from imported electricity.

Generally, all signals provided by Electricity Maps are available globally across the following date ranges:

• Historically, since 2017
• Real-time
• Forecasted, for the next 72 hours

Exceptions exist such as day-ahead electricity prices that are only available in Europe, and a few other zones worldwide.

All zones (except aggregated zones) are assigned a tier, depending on their level of data availability.

• Tier A zones have measured hourly (or more granular) data available from the original data source for the full electricity mix.
• Tier B zones have partial measured hourly data available from the original data source.
• Tier C zones do not have measured hourly source data available, but monthly or yearly totals only.

The coverage page groups all information relative to data availability, and zones classification.

Check the methodology page for more information on our zones classification and estimation models.

Different system operators might have different definitions for what they report as the total load. Some include losses, and discard storage, others don't.

To simultaneously guarantee a unique definition, global coverage, and provide access to system operators data, Electricity Maps provides access to different load signals:

• Total reported load represents the load data, as reported by system operators across the world.
• Total load represents the load data, as calculated by Electricity Maps. It is calculated as follows: Total load = Net generation - Exports + Imports - Charge + Discharge.
• Net load represents the load, as calculated by Electricity Maps, from which is deducted the variable renewable electricity (solar and wind).

The fossil-only carbon intensity represents the amount of greenhouse gas emitted (gCO₂eq) per unit of electricity (kWh) generated from sources that consume fossil fuels. It can be calculated for each time interval, for each geographical entity, by combining the fossil-only electricity mix data with technology-specific emission factors.

The carbon intensity computed from fossil sources only can be used as a proxy for the carbon intensity of the residual mix.