The Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) method says use the market-based method for electricity. What factor does an Indian plant with no green contract use?

PACT says companies shall use the market-based method, so the factor comes from your contracts. Without a contract meeting the quality criteria, and no other market-based data, the national, sub-national or regional grid-average factor shall be used. A footnote allows location-based where no contractual instruments exist.

Two ways to read the same bill

Location-based is like the average water quality of your city. Market-based is like the label on the bottle you actually bought. The market-based method takes the factor from your own contracts: certificates, direct contracts with a generator, or supplier-specific emission rates.

What PACT says if you have no contract

• Contract instruments shall meet the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Scope 2 quality criteria. These include being the only claim on that electricity, being retired by or for you, being issued close to the period of use and being from the same market as your plant.
• Where they do not, and no other market-based data exist, the grid-average factor shall be used. The source words it as prioritising the most granular data, and gives national over regional as its example.
• Where no instruments exist in a market, footnote 38 says location-based methods may be used.
• Its table lists "residual mix, sub-national or national grid-mix" for grid power without a contract. Residual mix means the untracked or unclaimed power left in the grid.

Part-covered power

If a contract covers only part of your units, use the residual grid mix for the rest. If you have several sources, take a weighted average by kilowatt hours.

What counts as electricity emissions

PACT says the scope includes upstream fuel extraction, grid losses, generation and waste from power plants. Whether the grid factor you hold covers all of these depends on its source, so read its notes. This site uses 0.675 kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilowatt hour (kWh) for financial year (FY) 2025-26, and 0.710 for 2024-25.

Reconciling with other pages here

The Catena-X auto parts page here calls the grid factor from the Central Electricity Authority the usual location-based figure. For an Indian plant with no qualifying contract, it is the fall-back PACT names. It also scores as secondary data for the primary data share, meaning an average from a database, not your own measurement.

One month of bills, example numbers

• Units bought: 100,000 kWh. 30,000 kWh covered by a qualifying contract at 0.05 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kWh, an example factor
• Uncovered: 70,000 kWh at the grid average of 0.675
• 30,000 x 0.05 = 1,500 kg. 70,000 x 0.675 = 47,250 kg. Total 48,750 kg
• Weighted average: 48,750 / 100,000 = 0.4875 kg CO2 per kWh

Numbers are examples. The 0.05 is not a real contract factor. The 0.675 covers carbon dioxide only.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so each month's units are on file. The contract papers behind a market-based factor come from you. Senseible builds figures in the PACT exchange format as a custom integration, on request.

• Location-based and market-based Scope 2 for a buyer
• Proof of renewable electricity buyers accept
• Primary data share and grid factors
• Market-based Scope 2 for an Indian supplier

Sources: PACT Methodology Version 3.0, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Rules are from PACT Methodology 3.0, section 3.3.2.3, Table 6, Box 7 and footnote 38. Re-check the grid factor for each year; this page does not state what the grid figure includes.