Understanding CDM Methodologies - SuSanA

Baseline Scenario and Additionality
Current Grid is
Baseline Scenario
Diesel-fired Grid:
Emission Factor of
Diesel Generator
Choice among
CM Calculation
Methods, or Grid
Average
Project Emissions
are Zero
For a system where all generators exclusively use fuel oil and/or diesel fuel,
the baseline scenario is diesel generation. Otherwise, the scenario is grid
electricity generation
In both cases, additionality of the project shall be demonstrated by
application of the barrier analysis, e.g. investment barrier, technological
barrier, barrier due to prevailing practice, or other barrier 242 . If project
participants wish, other additionality demonstration methods, e.g. the
investment analysis stipulated in the additionality tool, can also be applied in
addition to the barrier analysis. This is not a mandatory requirement, but has
been applied to many small-scale projects of this category to strengthen their
additionality argument.
Baseline Emissions
As compared to ACM0002, AMS-I.D provides methodological simplifications.
The main simplification is that AMS-I.D allows for the discretional choice of
the weighted average emissions factor of all plants serving the grid, which
is much simpler than the CM approach. This factor is calculated ex-post; the
data of the year in which project generation occurs must be used. Even if the
CM approach is chosen, projects participants are allowed to use any of the
four procedures to calculate the OM emission factor, as long as the criteria
to use the simple OM and average OM methods are met. The application
of default emission factors is also a key advantage for projects connected
to diesel generator systems. Here, the annual power generated by the
renewable unit is multiplied by an emission coefficient of a modern diesel
generating unit of the same capacity operating at the optimal load. AMS-I.D
provides default emission factors for three different diesel generator system
categories operating at the optimal load. 243
Project Emissions
With the exception of hydropower projects with power density less than or
equal to 10 W/m 2 (see the project emissions section of ACM0002 above), the
project emissions of this project category are assumed to be zero. It is not
clear at this stage whether small-scale geothermal power projects have to
consider the two project emission sources that need to be accounted for in
the context of large-scale geothermal power projects.
242
See Attachment A to Appendix B of the simplified modalities and procedures for small-scale CDM project
activities.
243
Category 1: Mini-grid with 24 hour service – 25% load factor; Category 2: (i) Mini-grid with temporary service
(four-six hours/day), (ii) productive applications, and (iii) water pumps – 50% load factor; and Category 3: Minigrid
with storage – 100% load factor.
56