Delivered Electricity
- What is Delivered Electricity?
- Why is Understanding the Sources of Utilities’ Delivered Electricity Service Important to Consumers?
- Additional Resources
What is Delivered Electricity?
Delivered electricity is the power consumers receive from their utility service provider. The utility’s electricity service is generated from a mix of resources and technologies. The sources of U.S. electricity generation in 2020 were:
- Natural Gas: 40%
- Nuclear: 20%
- Coal: 19%
- Petroleum: 1%
- Renewables: 20%
- Wind: 8.4%
- Hydro (all): 7.3%
- Solar: 2.3%
- Biomass: 1.4%
- Geothermal: 0.4%
Source: EIA.gov – Source of U.S. electricity generation - 2020
Why is Understanding the Sources of Utilities’ Delivered Electricity Service Important to Consumers?
For organizations interested in setting renewable energy targets or GHG reduction targets, knowing the sources and emissions of their delivered electricity is an important starting point.
The consumer’s understanding of what they receive from their utility’s electricity service can be important to their decision-making process for choosing incremental green power purchases that help them meet renewable energy and emissions reduction targets.
Additional Resources
Listing of resources does not constitute EPA endorsement of the following organizations or their products, services, or resources.
- Center for Resources’ Clean Energy Accounting Project – develops standardized, stakeholder-reviewed clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions accounting guidance addressing outstanding questions in voluntary and regulatory markets.
- Edison Electric Institute’s (EEI) Electricity Company Carbon Emissions and Electricity Mix Reporting Database – a database that provides carbon dioxide emission intensity rates and resource mix information, accounting for renewable energy certificates, for delivered electricity by electric distribution company.
- Xcel Energy’s Certified Renewable Percentage – a utility program example (pdf) for using renewable energy certificate accounting to account for renewables delivered through the delivered electricity service.