Our electricity database is fully constructed from underlying EcoInvent exchanges and national electricity production data. We created this enhanced dataset because selecting specific energy sources (e.g., wind turbine, >3MW) in standard ecoinvent data does not account for transmission, distribution, or transformation losses. Our database corrects for this by integrating those losses into all electricity factors. The goal is to generate a scalable and transparent electricity mix for every geography, voltage level, and electricity type (average, green, gray, wind, hydro, solar, natural gas, etc.).
The methodology works as follows:
1. Start with the average electricity production mix (high voltage)
For every geography we:
Collect the national average electricity production mix at high voltage level.
Identify and separate all electricity sources included in that mix, for example:
wind
hydro
solar
natural gas
coal
biomass
nuclear
Categorize each source as:
green (renewable)
gray (non-renewable)
This gives us a complete breakdown of the "average electricity mix" used in the country.
2. Derive the green and gray submixes proportionally
The key principle:
The average mix is the sum of all individual sources and therefore contains both green and gray electricity.
Example:
Total average electricity: 1.0 kilowatt hour
Green electricity sources sum to 0.4 kilowatt hour
Gray electricity sources sum to 0.6 kilowatt hour
From this we:
Normalize the 0.4 kilowatt hour of green electricity to 100 percent.
Keep the proportional contribution of each renewable source within that 0.4 kilowatt hour.
This means:
If the renewable part consists of 70 percent wind and 30 percent hydro, the green mix becomes:
70 percent wind
30 percent hydro
normalized to a full kilowatt hour
This ensures that the green mix reflects the real distribution of renewable technologies in that country.
3. Use EcoInvent exchanges to calculate environmental impacts
For each electricity source we:
Use the underlying EcoInvent process exchanges.
Calculate the environmental impacts for:
scope 2 emissions (if company-owned consumption)
scope 3 emissions (upstream production and losses)
We also:
Apply EcoInvent scope split factors to determine how much of the impact belongs to scope 2 versus scope 3.
Automatically classify transmission and distribution losses as scope 3.
4. Account for voltage transformations
Electricity is often delivered at different voltage levels. To model this correctly we:
Start at high voltage.
Transform to medium voltage using the specific conversion factors and loss percentages for that country.
Transform to low voltage using the same methodology.
For each transformation step we:
Apply the correct transmission losses (as defined by Ecoinvent).
Assign these losses to scope 3.
Recalculate the electricity mix distribution using the newly calculated values.
5. Medium voltage calculation logic
For medium voltage we:
Start from the average medium voltage mix for the country.
Identify how much of the medium voltage supply originates from high voltage.
Apply the conversion factors and losses to the high voltage electricity mix we calculated ourselves.
Rebuild the medium voltage mix using the same proportional methodology as before.
This ensures that:
The medium voltage mix reflects our updated green and gray distributions.
Losses are correctly applied.
The scope split remains accurate.
6. Low voltage calculation logic
We replicate the exact same process when transforming medium voltage to low voltage.
This produces:
A fully consistent electricity mix from high voltage to low voltage
With correct:
proportional distributions
transmission losses
scope boundaries
environmental impacts
7. Resulting capabilities
With this methodology we can:
Build a complete electricity mix for every country at:
high voltage
medium voltage
low voltage
Distinguish between green and gray electricity in a transparent and proportional way
Represent the real renewable technology distribution within green electricity
Calculate scope 2 and scope 3 splits automatically
Support modular electricity types such as:
100 percent wind
100 percent hydro
national green electricity
corporate green agreements
guarantees of origin
Scale up to many variants because the entire structure is based on the underlying EcoInvent exchanges