Soon after the European Commission announced a roadmap for the European Green Deal, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) released its first Opinion covering the topic of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The Opinion provided technical guidance on the calculation of CO2 emission limits in the framework of Capacity Mechanisms. Today, ACER complements that work with a paper providing examples of calculation for different types of production units.
These examples range from non-trivial applications of supplementary firing, district heating, co-firing and multi-shaft combined cycle turbines, to the case of a coal-fired generation unit participating in a strategic reserve scheme.
ACER's coordination with National Regulatory Authorities and capacity providers to implement CO2 emission limits is part of the overall increased leading role of ACER “to support the EU in achieving its climate objectives", as underlined by ACER Director Christian Zinglersen in his introductory statement to the European Parliament.
Background
In 2019 ACER received a mandate for providing technical guidance on the calculation of CO2 emission limits in the framework of Capacity Mechanisms. Following intensive consultation with interested stakeholders, ACER's Opinion - published in December 2019 - has singled out the principles for a comprehensive, harmonised approach to calculate emission limits at EU level.
CO2 emission limits will contain the environmental impact of Capacity Mechanisms by allocating capacity remuneration to generation capacity with lower carbon intensity: an essential tool to move towards the achievement of EU climate objectives.
Documents
You can access the ACER Paper providing Examples of Calculation for CO2 emission limits here.
You can access the ACER Opinion here.