# Outputs and Interpretation | Grid and Regions methodology
Source: https://greenpixie.com/docs/methodology/grid/outputs-and-interpretation

Primary outputs, intended use, and interpretation guidance.

## 11.1 Primary Outputs [#111-primary-outputs]

The methodology produces the following outputs for each cloud region and hour:

* **Grid Carbon Intensity**, expressed in tonnes CO₂e per kWh. The total emissions attributable to a kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed in that cloud region in that hour, being the sum of the combustion, upstream and downstream, and transmission and distribution figures below. This total is the figure carried by default. Each of the three components is retained against every hour.
* **Combustion Emissions**, expressed in tonnes CO₂e per kWh. The emissions released at the generating stations serving the cloud region, which a customer applying the location-based method reports as Scope 2.
* **Upstream and Downstream Emissions**, expressed in tonnes CO₂e per kWh. The remainder of the generation lifecycle, which a customer reports as Scope 3. Published as unknown where a contributing source does not state how its figure divides.
* **Transmission and Distribution Losses**, expressed in tonnes CO₂e per kWh. The emissions attributable to the electricity lost between generation and consumption, which a customer reports as Scope 3 Category 3.
* **Fuel Mix**, expressed as a percentage share per fuel. The share of the hour's generation contributed by each fuel or generating technology across the grid areas serving the cloud region.
* **Power Usage Effectiveness**, expressed as a ratio. The energy overhead of the data centres serving the cloud region.
* **Water Stress**, expressed as a ranked category. The baseline water stress of the province or administrative region containing the city the cloud region's data centres are located in, taken from Aqueduct 4.0.

## 11.2 Intended Use [#112-intended-use]

These outputs are intended to support organisational sustainability reporting under frameworks such as CSRD, SECR, and SEC climate disclosure; Scope 2 and Scope 3 measurement of emissions from purchased electricity; cloud region selection; scheduling decisions where a workload can be moved between hours or between cloud regions; and reduction target setting.

## 11.3 Interpretation Guidance [#113-interpretation-guidance]

Outputs are estimates calculated from published generation data, published emission factors, and published loss statistics, and reflect the best available information at the time of calculation. Actual emissions associated with electricity consumed in a cloud region may vary.

Factors are location-based and describe the average generation mix of a grid area across the hour. They do not describe the generation that would respond to a change in demand. A saving calculated by moving consumption between hours or between cloud regions using these factors is an average-basis figure.

A power usage effectiveness value is the cloud provider's own published figure where that cloud provider publishes at a scope covering the cloud region, and an assigned value elsewhere. An assigned value should not be read as a figure the cloud provider published for that cloud region. A value is comparable with others from the same cloud provider. The three cloud providers differ on measurement boundary, on the period covered and on whether leased capacity is counted. In each case Greenpixie carries the figure as its cloud provider publishes it.

Where the source for a grid area publishes monthly or yearly, every hour inside a published period carries that period's figure. Section 8 sets out how the hours after the latest published period are filled.

## 11.4 Non-Intended Use [#114-non-intended-use]

The outputs should not be treated as certified measurements, contractual guarantees, or regulatory compliance instruments unless explicitly agreed in writing. They should not be presented as market-based factors, nor combined with renewable energy certificates, guarantees of origin, or power purchase agreements to produce a market-based figure. Nor should they be used to calculate the emissions effect of a change in demand on a grid, which requires a marginal factor this methodology does not produce.