City of Ashland – Greenhouse Gas Inventory (2011 – 2015) 32 Figure A3 compares the carbon intensity (MT CO2e / MWh) of Ashland Utility’s supply portfolio to the regional electricity grid (Northwest Power Pool), and regional grid adjusted for Ashland’s REC purchases. Notably, the electricity emissions factors can fluctuate significantly from year to year based on the amount of hydroelectric power generated by BPA, as is seen between 2011 and 2012. The Ashland Utility emissions factors show that the Ashland’s electricity supply contracts and owned-generation are low-carbon, even if the Utility or the Community does not own those environmental benefits. Because Ashland does not own the environmental benefits of BPA power, a better representation of the climate consequences of Ashland’s electricity use is Regional Grid, NWPP. The best representation of is use of NWPP adjusted to account for the REC’s purchased voluntarily by Ashland’s Utility on behalf of the community from BPA and voluntary, community-at-large REC purchases from Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Ownership of the community-at-large RECs remains with the households and businesses making these purchases, but are included in this inventory so as not to overestimate emissions from grid electricity.13 For more details and a description of issues with using the TCR protocol for BPA supplied public utilities, see the following Methodology section. The NWPP Grid (REC adjusted) emissions factor is used to calculate emissions for the Ashland Community and City Government Operations GHG Inventory. It is recommended that a market-based calculation methodology using the regional grid factor (NWPP) adjusted by total community REC purchases is used to calculate emissions in Ashland operational and community inventories. Figure A3: Comparison of Utility-Specific and Regional Grid emissions factors. METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH Protocols and Methodology This inventory follows The Climate Registry’s Electric Power Sector Protocol. Calculations used the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) 12-month average firm energy resources as reported in BPA’s Annual Facts Reports. BPA resources defined as “other” sources of energy 13 Community-at-large purchases REC data was received late in the process. This data is included in the Audit Trail for the Community inventory, but was only included in the accounting for the 2015 inventory. Type%of%Emissions%Factors%(MT%CO2e%/%MWh)20112012201320142015Ashland%Utility0.0800.0390.0440.0390.039*Regional%Grid%(NWPP)0.3730.3040.304*0.304*0.304*NWWP%Grid%(REC%adjusted)0.3550.2880.288*0.288*0.288**Indicates%previous%year's%factor%used%as%proxy.%Most%recent%EPA%eGRID%factor%for%NWPP%is%2012.%Likewise%2015%data%from%BPA%for%%Ashland's%inventory%is%not%available.%

Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP)