Labelling and disclosure

Already since 2001, suppliers in Austria have been obliged by law to disclose primary energy shares, i.e. the energy carriers their electricity has been produced from. The amounts of CO2 emissions and radioactive waste produced in the process of electricity generation must be stated on electricity bills and on promotional marterial subject to labelling.

E-Control is entrusted with monitoring electricity labelling. On an annual basis, it conducts a comprehensive review of all suppliers supplying electricity to consumers in Austria. The results of this evaluation as well as a presentation of the current framwork are presented in its annual labelling report (German only).

The Austrian labelling model is an evidence-based system. Electricity traders and suppliers have to present legal evidence for their primary energy mix. If they cannot present evidence for a certain amount of electricity, this amount has to be classified as "electricity of unknown origin - ENTSO-E mix" (until June 2009 UCTE mix), a statistical value.

Electricity labelling is managed mainly via the Austrian Guarantees of Origin database (GO database), which covers the entire life cylce of a Guarantee of Origin (GO) (issuing - transfer - redeeming). By choosing this evidence-based approach and the management via a central Austrian database, Austria has installed an extremely transparent and reliable system which virtually excludes fraud such as double issuance or double redeeming. Electricity disclosure on the annual bill of consumers should contain the information provided in figure 1 (data example).

The Austrian energy mix in 2011

On average, Austrian consumers were supplied with an electricity mix of 67,4 % from known renewable energy sources, 17,6 % from known fossil fuels, 0.3 % from other known energy sources and 14,7 % of unknown origin in 2010 (see figure 2). Electricity of unknown origin is labelled as ENTSO-E (UCTE) mix on the bill.

Fig. 2: Austrian energy mix 2011 Durch Klicken auf das Symbol öffnen Sie das Diagramm

Disclosing the environmental impact of electricity generation

According to the 2006 amendment of the Austrian Electricity Act, certain environmental impacts of electricity generation must be disclosed since 1 January 2007: the CO2 emissions and radioactive waste produced along with the total amount of electricity delivered to consumers in the period under consideration must be stated in g/kWh on electricity bills and promotional material.

The environmental impact depends on the energy sources and generation technologies used. Renewable sources for instance store just as much CO2 during their growth as is released when they are used for energy generation. They are thus considered carbon neutral energy sources (i.e. with an emission value of 0 g/kWh of electricity). The emissions of fossil fuels (natural gas, oil and coal) decline with rising efficiency (energetic output in relation to energetic input) and with the carbon content in relation to the hydrogen content of the energy carrier. An efficient power plant thus causes less emissions than an inefficient one.

The following table shows standard values for the individual energy carriers:

If the origin of electricity can not be unequivocally determined, e.g. when the electricity was bought at a power exchange, this electricity of unknown origin must be labelled as "ENTSO-E mix". The ENTSO-E mix is a statistical proxy for the Europe-wide power mix.. On the homepage of the Guarantees of Origin database, the current energy mix is available along with the corresponding emission values.