I-DEV0404: The parameter “Total amount of electricity imported to meet project requirement” has not been archived electronically monthly as stated in the MP of the registered PDD. Electricity import is however continuously measured by an electricity meter and the equipment keeps the data of the accumulated electricity.

Proactiva Tijuquinhas Landfill Gas Capture and Flaring project is a landfill gas capture and flaring at the Tijuquinhas municipal solid waste landfill in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. This landfill is used for disposal of the total amount of solid waste of the Florianópolis metropolitan area.
In the registered monitoring plan, the parameter “Total amount of electricity imported to meet project requirement” (Electricity imported) is one of the parameters to be monitored, in order to calculate project emissions.
The monitoring plan requests that the parameter ‘Electricity imported’ shall be monitored continuously and archived electronically. In addition, it is stated in the registered MP in page 53 that “all data required for the emission reduction calculations will be kept in the onsite-monitoring database. This information will be reported on a monthly basis.”
During the site visit, it was verified that the parameter ‘Electricity imported’ is continuously measured by a reliable electricity meter and that the equipment keeps the data of the accumulated electricity consumption. The monitoring procedure in place at the time of the verification audit consists of the operator taking down data manually from the equipment display and registering it onto an electronic spreadsheet together with all the other operational data, at least monthly. This spreasdsheet is part of the on-site monitoring database refered to in the monitoring plan. In accordance with the QA/QC procedures, the cumulated value of electricity consumption is thereby recorded at least monthly.
However, in the beginning of the monitoring period such monthly recording was not reported in the Excel spreadsheet and thus the monthly figures for the period October 2008 to 2nd of August 2010 have been estimated based on the total accumulated data over the monitoring period and not on monthly recorded data (although the cumulated value remained in the equipment memory/display). That is the reason to request a deviation from the MP for this monitoring period.

A revision of the monitoring plan is not required because the installed equipment to monitor the parameter “Total amount of electricity imported to meet project requirement” is still in place as described in the monitoring plan of the registered PDD. During the next monitoring period the parameter can be measured and calculated as described in the registered monitoring plan.
During the site visit for the first periodic verification, the DOE could verify that the PP had already improved its QA/QC procedures and established from the August 3rd, 2010 onwards a monthly recording of the electricity consumption (cumulated readings of the meter). These records were presented to the DOE.
A notification of changes from the project activity as described in the registered PDD is not required because no equipment has been changed or has been additionally implemented regarding the parameter “Total amount of electricity imported to meet project requirement” for which this deviation is requested.

The parameter “Total amount of electricity imported to meet project requirement” is used to calculate Project Emissions derived from electrical consumption of equipment installed in the biogas plant and has a very low impact on the total number of emission reductions (only 0.0814%).
The counter used to monitor this parameter was installed for and is dedicated to the project activity. The installation of the counter occurred on October 20th, 2008, which is prior to the beginning of the crediting period. The date of installation was evidenced through a certificate provided by the third party installer and verified by DOE during site visit. The initial and conservative starting value of the counter used in the ER calculations is zero (0). All readings are cumulative, so no consumption data is lost. The reported cumulated reading in the equipment display since the beginning of first MP was verified by DOE during site visit. A plausibility check was carried out by the verification team considering the total power rate of the LFG blowers and other main electrical equipment and a conservative estimate of operating hours. The results showed that the reported values for the first MP are plausible.
The PP based the monthly estimates of consumption of electricity on actual cumulative readings and monitored data from the whole monitoring period as well as on the first available monthly recordings (August 2010). Therefore, there is no impact on the final amount of project emissions or emission reductions for the whole Monitoring Period, just on the monthly values.
The monthly estimates used in the spreadsheet were obtained taking into account the landfill gas flow, which is proportional to the electricity consumption (blowers are the most important consumers of electricity on site).
This method to estimate intermediate values for which no interim recordings are available is deemed appropriate by the DOE. The calculation was clearly and transparently presented to the DOE in the excel sheets presented for the ER calculation on which the MR is based.
Hence, the DOE considers that the values applied for “Total amount of electricity imported to meet project requirement” are deemed appropriate, plausible and conservative and the deviation does not result in an over estimation of emission reductions for the period.