The grid emission factor is the number that turns the kWh on your electricity bill into tonnes of CO₂e. For most manufacturers in the Western Balkans, electricity is the largest line in the inventory, so this one factor decides the headline figure.
The same kWh is not the same emissions
Electricity grids in the region run from hydro-heavy, as in Albania, to lignite-heavy, as in Kosovo. A kWh bought in one country carries very different emissions from a kWh bought in the other. A factor that averages across the EU sits somewhere between them and is right for neither.
The result is a Scope 2 figure that is off by multiples, in one direction for some grids and the other direction for others. Nothing in the report looks wrong. The error only shows when a reviewer asks which factor you used.
Why the grid emission factor matters more than the invoices
A typing error on one invoice moves one month. A wrong factor moves every month, in every facility in that country, by the same proportion. That is why reviewers ask about the factor first, and why it is worth getting right before anything else.
What to check in any tool
- Does it use the country's own factor, chosen from the facility's country, not a regional or EU average?
- Is the factor shown on every record, with its source and its version?
- Are old versions kept, so a later update never silently changes an earlier report?
- Which method is used? The location-based method uses the average of the grid where the electricity was consumed. The market-based method reflects contracts and certificates you have chosen.
How Karbon360 handles it
Karbon360 applies the national grid factor for each facility's country, using the location-based method, and shows the factor, its value, its version and its source in the calculation trace of every record. Versions are retained. If you hold a green-energy certificate, keep it on file; location-based reporting is what the product applies today. The background is in emission factors, and the calculation is in how to calculate Scope 2 emissions.