Conversion of smart meter data in user-intuitive carbon footprint information

Abstract

The climate changes are becoming more and more obvious for each of us. Nowadays, the link between the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the climate change is a worldwide recognized phenomenon. Although, the consumption of grid electricity is one of the most important sources of GHG emissions, the effects of this human behavior on the environment are still unknown, being invisible to the domestic consumer. A universal solution for the consumer information, from the environmental impact viewpoint of its electricity consumption behavior, may come from the smart metering area. A smart meter could also provide information about the carbon footprint. This paper presents a carbon footprint computation and possible displaying algorithm associated with the household consumption of grid electricity. The algorithm could be implemented in the smart metering system and it represents an easy user-intuitive way to improve the domestic consumer information using the smart meter data. Results based on typical load curves and national energy mix are presented.