Energy consumption and self-generation within the organization

Disclosure focus

Disclosure 103-2 requires an organization to report its fuel consumption, purchased electricity, heating, cooling and steam, self-generated renewable energy consumed within the organization, and self-generated energy sold. The information must be reported in joules, watt-hours or appropriate multiples and supported by the specified source, energy-form and activity breakdowns.

For fuel consumption, the organization must report the total and break it down between renewable and non-renewable energy sources. It must also report the activities in which fuel is consumed for every renewable and non-renewable energy source. The activity breakdown should therefore cover fossil fuels as well as renewable fuels.

Fuel consumption includes fuels purchased by the organization and fuels it generates itself, such as extracted oil and gas or biofuel produced from biomass owned or controlled by the organization. Purchased and self-generated fuels can be reported separately as additional information.

Where the organization consumes fuel to generate electricity or heat and then uses the generated energy internally, the energy must be counted once as fuel consumption. The generated electricity or heat must not be added again as self-generated renewable energy consumption.

The organization must report total purchased electricity, heating, cooling and steam and break the total down between renewable and non-renewable sources. For each renewable and non-renewable source, it must separately report electricity, heating, cooling and steam consumption. Purchased energy includes energy indirectly acquired and consumed, such as electricity consumed by the organization as a tenant.

The organization must report total self-generated renewable electricity, heating, cooling and steam consumed within the organization. This total must be broken down by energy form, by the activity in which the energy is consumed and by each renewable energy source.

Self-generated renewable electricity whose associated contractual attributes have been sold must not be reported as self-generated renewable electricity consumed by the organization.

The organization must report total self-generated electricity, heating, cooling and steam sold. It must break the total down between renewable and non-renewable sources and separately report each energy form for each source.

Where self-generated renewable electricity is sold, the organization should state whether the associated contractual instruments were also sold and should distinguish renewable electricity sold with contractual instruments from electricity sold while the organization retained the attributes.

The organization must report whether contractual instruments were used to disclose purchased electricity, heating, cooling or steam. If they were used, it must describe how the instruments meet the applicable quality criteria for accuracy and consistency.

Contractual instruments must convey a unique greenhouse gas emission-rate attribute, be tracked and redeemed, retired or cancelled on behalf of the organization, be issued and redeemed as close as possible to the relevant consumption period, and be sourced from the same market in which they are applied.

The organization should state whether purchased renewable electricity was calculated using grid-average, location-based information or contractual, market-based information. It should identify how electricity is purchased from the grid, the relevant grid mix and the types of contractual instruments used.

For each contractual-instrument type, the organization should report the amount and percentage of total purchased electricity covered. Additional information can include the generation facility’s commissioning or repowering date, government support, contract length and whether the contract preceded the investment decision to build the facility.

Energy consumed or sold through carriers or storage systems, such as hydrogen or batteries, must be classified according to its primary energy source. The organization should provide contextual information on that primary source and any relevant subsidies or contractual instruments.

The organization must report the standards, methodologies, assumptions and calculation tools used and identify the sources of its energy conversion factors. It should explain why these methods and factors were selected, apply factors consistently and use fuel-specific factors that best represent the actual energy content.

As additional information, the organization can report total energy consumption as the sum of fuel consumption, purchased energy and self-generated renewable energy consumed. It can report total net energy consumption by subtracting self-generated energy sold from that total. Contractual-instrument volumes are subsets of purchased energy and must not be added again.

Where it supports transparency or comparability, the organization can provide additional breakdowns by business unit, facility or country. Where required information cannot be reported, it should apply the relevant reason for omission in accordance with GRI 1 rather than presenting a selected population as the complete organizational total.

This LRA educational guidance supports disclosure preparation. For the exact requirements, always refer to the official Global Reporting Initiative source.