The electric power industry reports the vast majority of their emissions (greater than 99 percent) through the use of continuous emissions monitors and fuel-use estimated data that are transmitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA annually publishes data on GHG emissions and electric power generation. The "Electric Power Sector" in these publications is defined by EIA as the "energy-consuming sector that consists of electricity only and combined heat and power (CHP) plants whose primary business is to sell electricity, or electricity and heat, to the public – i.e., North American Industry Classification System 22 plants". It does not include CO2 emissions or electric output from industrial and commercial combined heat and power units. Using EIA data reports, the following table presents the 2000 to 2006 trends in the electric power sector for CO2 emissions, electric power generation, and (unadjusted) CO2 emissions intensity:
Million Metric Tons Carbon Dioxide |
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| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | P2006 | |
| Petroleum | 91.8 | 102.6 | 78.2 | 97.2 | 99.0 | 101.3 | 54.5 |
| Coal | 1,915.5 | 1,856.1 | 1,872.2 | 1,910.5 | 1,922.7 | 1,963.7 | 1,937.9 |
| Natural Gas | 282.8 | 291.1 | 307.4 | 279.3 | 297.7 | 320.5 | 339.5 |
| Municipal Solid Waste | 10.2 | 10.9 | 12.7 | 11.4 | 11.2 | 11.2 | 11.5 |
| Geothermal | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Total Electric Power CO2 Emissions | 2,300.7 | 2,261.1 | 2,270.9 | 2,298.8 | 2,331.0 | 2,397.1 | 2,343.9 |
Source: Developed from Energy Information Administration, Emissions of Greenhouse Gasses in the United States 2006, DOE/EIA-0573(2005), November 2007, Table 9. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/pdf/table9.pdf
Thousand Megawatt-hours |
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| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
| Elec. Generators, electric utilities | 3,015,383 | 2,629,946 | 2,549,457 | 2,462,281 | 2,505,231 | 2,474,846 | 2,483,656 |
| Elec. Generators, IPPs | 457,540 | 780,592 | 955,331 | 1,063,205 | 1,118,870 | 1,246,971 | 1,259,062 |
| Combined Heat & Power, elect. utilities | 164,606 | 169,515 | 193,670 | 195,674 | 184,259 | 180,375 | 165,359 |
| Total Electric Power Generation | 3,637,529 | 3,580,053 | 3,698,458 | 3,721,160 | 3,808,360 | 3,902,192 | 3,908,077 |
Source: Developed from Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual 2006, Table 1.1. Net Generation by Energy Source by Type of Producer, 1995 through 2006. Data from Form EIA-906, "Power Plant Report;" Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-920 "Combined Heat and Power Plant Reprot;" and predecessor forms: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat1p1.html
Metric Tons CO2 per Megawatt-hour (unadjusted) |
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| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | P2006 | |
| Electric Power Sector | 0.6325 | 0.6316 | 0.6140 | 0.6178 | 0.6121 | 0.6143 | 0.5998 |
Since the federal government's raw statistics for the industry do not take into account off-system actions and other non-generation activities by the power sector that offset and affect GHG emissions from generation, Power PartnersSM surveyed its utilities, power generators and members to obtain this information. These off-system and non-generation actions included: transmission and distribution actions, energy efficiency and demand-side management (DSM), carbon sequestration, coal combustion product utilization, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) activities and landfill methane recovery. Power PartnersSM made a commitment to reduce the power sector's GHG intensity by the equivalent of 3-5 percent over a decade. Recognizing the effects of short-term fluctuations in weather, rainfall, and other operating conditions on generation mixes, this goal is expressed as a three-year average, using 2000-2002 as the base-year average, and 2010-2012 as the target year average. For a fuller discussion of these adjustments and GHG emissions intensity trends, please refer to pages 3-6 of the January 2007 Power PartnersSM Annual Report (PDF 4 MB)
The results to date of the electric power sector's efforts to reduce GHG emission intensity are discussed in the Electric Power Results section of this website.
Page Last Modified: September 9, 2008
