Announcing GridScore and CarbonScore
You can't transact what you don't trust
Both Sides Need a Number They Can Trust
We’re at a critical juncture right now where real choices are being made by data centers between investing in grid capacity and defecting to off-grid solutions. Bring your Own Capacity (BYOC) can mean building a new single-cycle gas power plant or it can mean installing thousands of batteries in the local community. Done right, investing in local community resources will reduce costs for everyone. But the overwhelming odds right now point to scenarios in which data centers drive up demand and energy prices continue to skyrocket. Where utilities once feared DERs because of the loss of revenue, they are now finding that DERs may be the best hope for solving near term load growth challenges and affordability at the same time.
Aristotle and WEATS are unlocking new demand-side energy markets by creating trust on all sides. As part of that effort, we’ve revamped our Registry to focus on better understanding how DER portfolios contribute to grid resilience and carbon reductions. Here’s what’s new.
GridScore and CarbonScore: Now Live in the DER Registry
Our redesigned DER Registry is live, and two new metrics sit at its center.
GridScore answers a simple question: is this asset helping when the grid needs it most? It measures the share of a DER’s energy savings that occur during the top 10% of demand hours. A rooftop solar system that produces steadily all afternoon scores differently than a battery that dispatches precisely at peak. GridScore captures that difference.
CarbonScore answers the emissions question with the same precision. Rather than relying on annual average grid intensity, CarbonScore calculates the actual kg of CO2 avoided per MWh of energy displaced, using the carbon intensity of the grid at the hour the savings occurred and the related carbon savings associated with primary fuel consumption. For buyers making procurement or sustainability claims, this is the defensible number auditors and regulators expect.
Every enrolled asset is independently measured and scored. The data is open to market participants, transparent, and backed by meter-level verification. Explore the registry to see how different types of projects stack up.
We’re also getting ready to introduce Aristotle, our conversational interface for the platform. Tell it about the energy program you want to build, and it will help you design and set it up. We’ll have more to share soon.
Us at SF Climate Week: April 21
We’re hosting a panel during SF Climate Week, co-sponsored by AECOM:
Unlocking a Greener Grid: DERs, Electrification, and the Future of Energy Tuesday, April 21 | 5:00 to 6:30 PM | AECOM HQ San Francisco
The conversation will focus on what it takes to make distributed energy resources bankable: transparent measurement, credible certification, and transaction systems that work.
Our panelists:
Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America
Michael Lee, former CEO of Octopus Energy, North America
Sarah Millar (Moderator), former VP at Renew Home
McGee Young, CEO of WattCarbon
If you work in DER development, utility program design, clean energy procurement, or electrification policy, this is your room. The event is free and in-person. Register here.
Community Energy Standards for Data Centers
In March, we joined a panel at BayREN’s Codes and Standards Forum on Powering Data Centers: Balancing Growth with Sustainability and Affordability, alongside speakers from PG&E, the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara, Energy Solutions, and Caliber Strategies. (Full session recordings and slides are available on BayREN’s site.)
One number from PG&E’s presentation stood out: 7,250 MW of data center load is currently in their interconnection pipeline, with 3,550 MW already in final engineering. To put that in perspective, PG&E’s entire system peak is around 30,000 MW.
PG&E’s proposed Electric Rule 30 focuses almost entirely on transmission-level interconnection, cost responsibility, minimum demand charges, and 15-year service commitments. What’s missing from that framework is any requirement for these new loads to invest in local energy resources. A 100 MW data center in San Jose will pay for its transmission upgrades, but there’s no mechanism asking it to support rooftop solar, storage, or efficiency in the community whose grid it now shares. Cities like San Jose and Santa Clara are starting to set their own standards (San Jose requires carbon neutrality depending on energy provider), but there’s no consistent measurement infrastructure behind those requirements.
That’s the gap we’re working to fill. Demand-side energy markets need two things to be enforceable: independent measurement of what distributed resources actually deliver, and certificates that prove it. We’re building both. If your organization is working on data center energy policy or community energy programs, we’d welcome the conversation. You can reach me directly at mcgee@wattcarbon.com.