CACE combines electricity price and grid carbon intensity into a single metric, so procurement, sustainability and finance teams are all optimising the same signal.
Energy procurement and sustainability reporting are usually optimised separately. Procurement chases the lowest $/MWh; sustainability tracks tCO₂/MWh. The two objectives pull in different directions depending on the market. Low prices often correlate with high emissions intensity, and vice versa.
The Carbon-Adjusted Cost of Energy (CACE) resolves this by combining both dimensions into a single comparable index. It weights the current spot price against current grid carbon intensity and a carbon cost parameter, producing a number that is directly comparable across intervals, regions and time periods.
The result: procurement, sustainability and finance teams can operate from the same view without needing to reconcile competing optimisation criteria in a spreadsheet.
CACE weights the current spot price against current grid carbon intensity and a configurable carbon value to produce a single comparable index. Instead of tracking $/MWh and tCO₂/MWh separately and trying to reconcile them in a meeting, both teams see the same signal.
gridIQ recalculates CACE at every 5-minute NEM dispatch interval and every 30-minute WEM trading interval. Carbon intensity is derived from the live generation mix, not an annual average, so the metric reflects actual grid conditions.
CACE varies across regions based on generation mix and spot price. A region with cheap spot prices but a coal-heavy generation mix will have a different CACE profile to a region with higher prices but stronger renewable penetration.
Ask Watt for the current CACE in any region, the historical CACE trend for a specific period or the optimal operating window by CACE over the next 24 hours. The Load Shift Advisor uses CACE to generate load-shift recommendations.
Load Shift Advisor: CACE is the primary optimisation signal for load-shift window recommendations. When CACE is low, the window is cost-efficient and carbon-light. When CACE is high, it is expensive and emissions-intensive: the right time to curtail or shift flexible load.
Watt AI: Ask Watt to compare CACE across regions to find the best operating window across a distributed portfolio, or to explain why CACE spiked during a recent event.
Scope 2 Tracker: CACE provides context for time-matched market-based Scope 2 figures by surfacing the cost-emissions tradeoff at each consumption interval.
CACE is available to all gridIQ users, including the free tier. Sign up to view live CACE across all NEM regions.
Carbon-Adjusted Cost of Energy across all six regions, updated every dispatch interval. Free for every gridIQ account.
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