Earth Notes: GB Electricity Grid Live Carbon Intensity Dataset

Updated 2022-10-15.
GB (Scotland/England/Wales) grid carbon intensity (gCO2/kWh2) as computed from FUELINST data live multiple times per hour. #carbonIntensity #dataset
Log of GB grid CO2 intensity figures as computed live.

This is time-series of estimates of CO2 emitted per unit of electricity generated for the GB grid. (The GB grid includes England, Wales and Scotland, but excludes Northern Ireland which is part of the Ireland-wide system.)

This carbon intensity value is computed and logged at least every 10 minutes. It may be logged more often under some circumstances.

The intensity is derived from the FUELINST dataset for the GB grid.

With these figures it is possible to match with consumption (or exports) of grid electricity, for example for a single home. A finer-grained carbon footprint can then be calculated than using a single annual average/total. This may be important because intensity and demand tend to vary seasonally.

Dataset

name
GB Electricity Grid Live CO2 Intensity
description
GB (Scotland/England/Wales) grid carbon intensity as computed live from FUELINST data from Elexon multiple times per hour.
version
1
keywords
carbon, intensity, CO2, CO2e, grid, GB, UK
variable measured
electricity carbon intensity
date created
2019-11-17T21:55Z
date published
date modified
2025-07
temporal coverage
2019-11-17T21:55Z/..
spatial coverage
GB
distribution
directory of recent carbon-intensity log data files named YYYYMMDD.log
distribution
directory of batched monthly carbon-intensity log data files named YYYYMM.log.gz
canonical URL
this descriptive text with markup
is part of
16WW Dataset
licence
this dataset is licensed under CC0, ie it is effectively public domain; if you make use of this data, attribution is welcome but not obligatory
is accessible for free
true