How to read your electricity bill for Scope 2

An electricity bill has many numbers on it. Only one of them goes into your emissions report. This article shows you how to find it, how to avoid the usual mistakes and what to do when a bill is awkward. We describe bills in general terms, because each utility designs its own.

What Scope 2 means

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol defines Scope 2 as emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heating or cooling. You do not burn anything in your office. The power station does, because you asked it to supply you.

The one number you need: kWh

The number is your consumption in kilowatt-hours (kWh). One kWh is the energy used by a device drawing one kilowatt for one hour. A 2 kW heater running for 3 hours uses 6 kWh.

You supply the kWh. The emission factor is applied by the reporting tool, so you do not need to look it up. That is why the amount in dirhams is useless for this purpose: it mixes your use with tariffs, fuel surcharges, fees and VAT.

What to look for on any bill

• The meter or account number. It tells you which premises the bill belongs to.
• The billing period: a start date and an end date. It may not match a calendar month.
• Consumption in kWh, sometimes labelled Units or Consumption.
• Previous and current meter readings. The difference between them should match the consumption.

One property guide describes a Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) bill as listing the meter number, the current and previous readings, and consumption in kWh, next to a separate section for water in imperial gallons. Other utilities arrange these items differently, so search the page for the words rather than for a position.

Which utility sends your bill

• DEWA supplies electricity and water in Dubai.
• SEWA, the Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority, is the primary provider of electricity, water and gas in Sharjah.
• Etihad Water and Electricity (EtihadWE) serves customers in the northern part of the UAE. Its service offices are in Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Al Dhaid, Fujairah, Dibba Al Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah.
• Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) serves Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain Distribution Company (AADC) operates and maintains water and electricity network assets in the Al Ain region.

One bill per meter, per month

A company often has more than one meter: an office, a warehouse, a staff flat, a parking area. Each meter has its own account and its own bill. The report needs all of them, for the same twelve months. If you have three meters, you need 36 bills for a full year.

When the billing period crosses a year end

A bill that runs from 20 December to 19 January belongs partly to each year. A common way to handle this is to split the kWh in proportion to the days. Show the formula first, then the numbers.

Example with invented numbers: the bill covers 31 days and shows 3,100 kWh. Twelve of those days fall in December. kWh in December = 3,100 x 12 / 31 = 1,200 kWh. The remaining 1,900 kWh belong to January. Write a note on the file that you used this method.

Common mistakes

• Typing the amount in AED instead of kWh.
• Reading the water line. Water is a different service and is measured in other units.
• Skipping a meter because it belongs to a small area such as parking or a storage room.
• Mixing years. All twelve months should come from the same calendar year.
• Throwing away a bill that looks estimated. Keep it and note that it is an estimate.

Location-based and market-based

The GHG Protocol describes a market-based method that relies on contractual instruments, such as renewable energy certificates, which must meet quality criteria. If your company holds no such certificates, the usual starting point is the location-based method, which uses the average grid factor for where you are.

What to do this week

• List every meter and the utility that bills it.
• Download twelve bills for each meter and name the files by meter and month.
• Write the kWh and the billing period for each bill in one table.
• Keep the originals for at least five years, as the law requires for emissions records.

DecarbOS Intelligence prepares Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions reports and physical climate reports. It does no consulting.

General information, not legal advice.