Who counts the electricity for reefer containers plugged in at a port?
The terminal pays the power bill, so the electricity for reefer plugs is in the terminal's Scope 2 unless it is billed on to the shipping line as metered use. The cargo owner sees it inside the reefer freight figure. Count it once.
Cases
- Terminal pays and absorbs it: terminal Scope 2.
- Terminal bills metered power to the line: line's Scope 2 or Scope 3.
- Exporter: inside the reefer freight emissions.
What to keep
Reefer plug hours or metered kWh per container. That turns a site total into a per-box figure a food exporter can use.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.
Sources: GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, Smart Freight Centre, GLEC Framework
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.