Commission Decision of 18 July 2007 establishing guidelines for the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document number C(2007) 3416) (Text with EEA relevance) (2007/589/EC) (repealed)

4. MONITORING OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

4.1. BOUNDARIES

The monitoring and reporting process for an installation shall include all relevant greenhouse gas emissions from all emission sources and/or source streams belonging to activities carried out at the installation and listed in Annex I to Directive 2003/87/EC, as well as from activities and greenhouse gases included by a Member State pursuant Article 24 of Directive 2003/87/EC.

Article 6(2)(b) of Directive 2003/87/EC requires that greenhouse gas emissions permits shall contain a description of the activities and emissions from the installation. Therefore, all emission sources and source streams from activities listed in Annex I to Directive 2003/87/EC that are to be monitored and reported shall be listed in the permit. Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 2003/87/EC requires that greenhouse gas emissions permits shall contain monitoring requirements, specifying monitoring methodology and frequency.

Emissions from mobile internal combustion engines for transportation purposes shall be excluded from the emission estimates.

The monitoring of emissions shall include emissions from regular operations and abnormal events including start-up and shut-down, and emergency situations over the reporting period.

If the separate or combined production capacities, or outputs of one or several activities belonging to the same activity subheading in Annex I to Directive 2003/87/EC exceed the respective threshold defined in that Annex in one installation or on one site, all emissions from all emission sources and/or source streams of all activities listed in that Annex in the respective installation or site shall be monitored and reported.

Whether an additional combustion installation, such as a combined heat and power installation, is regarded as part of an installation carrying out another Annex I activity or as a separate installation depends on local circumstances and shall be established in the installation's greenhouse gas emission permit.

All emissions from an installation shall be assigned to that installation, regardless of exports of heat or electricity to other installations. Emissions associated with the production of heat or electricity imported from other installations shall not be assigned to the importing installation.

4.2. CALCULATION AND MEASUREMENT-BASED METHODOLOGIES

Annex IV to Directive 2003/87/EC permits a determination of emissions using either:

• a calculation-based methodology, determining emissions from source streams based on activity data obtained by means of measurement systems and additional parameters from laboratory analyses or standard factors;

• a measurement-based methodology, determining emissions from an emission source by means of continuous measurement of the concentration of the relevant greenhouse gas in the flue gas and of the flue gas flow.

The operator may propose to use a measurement based methodology if he can demonstrate that:

• it reliably results in a more accurate value of annual emissions of the installation than an alternative calculation based methodology, while avoiding unreasonable costs; and

• the comparison between measurement and calculation-based methodology is based on an identical set of emission sources and source streams.

The use of a measurement-based methodology shall be subject to the approval of the competent authority. For each reporting period the operator shall corroborate the measured emissions by means of calculation-based methodology in accordance with the provisions of Section 6.3(c).

The operator may, with the approval of the competent authority, combine measurement and calculation-based methodologies for different emission sources and source streams belonging to one installation. The operator shall ensure and demonstrate that neither gaps nor double counting concerning emissions occur.

4.3. THE MONITORING PLAN

Pursuant to Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 2003/87/EC greenhouse gas emissions permits shall contain monitoring requirements, specifying monitoring methodology and frequency.

The monitoring methodology is part of the monitoring plan which shall be approved by the competent authority in accordance with the criteria set out in this Section and its subsections. The Member State or its competent authorities shall ensure that the monitoring methodology to be applied by installations shall be specified either under the conditions of the permit or, where consistent with Directive 2003/87/EC, in general binding rules.

The competent authority shall check and approve the monitoring plan prepared by the operator before the start of the reporting period, and again after any substantial changes to the monitoring methodology are applied to an installation as listed three paragraphs below.

Subject to Section 16, the monitoring plan shall contain the following contents:

(a)

the description of the installation and activities carried out by the installation to be monitored;

(b)

information on responsibilities for monitoring and reporting within the installation;

(c)

a list of emissions sources and source streams to be monitored for each activity carried out within the installation;

(d)

a description of the calculation-based methodology or measurement-based methodology to be used;

(e)

a list and description of the tiers for activity data, emission factors, oxidation and conversion factors for each of the source streams to be monitored;

(f)

a description of the measurement systems, and the specification and exact location of the measurement instruments to be used for each of the source streams to be monitored;

(g)

evidence demonstrating compliance with the uncertainty thresholds for activity data and other parameters (where applicable) for the applied tiers for each source stream;

(h)

if applicable, a description of the approach to be used for the sampling of fuel and materials for the determination of net calorific value, carbon content, emission factors, oxidation and conversion factor and biomass content for each of the source streams;

(i)

a description of the intended sources or analytical approaches for the determination of the net calorific values, carbon content, emission factor, oxidation factor, conversion factor or biomass fraction for each of the source streams;

(j)

if applicable, a list and description of non-accredited laboratories and relevant analytical procedures including a list of all relevant quality assurance measures, e.g. inter-laboratory comparisons as described in Section 13.5.2;

(k)

if applicable, a description of continuous emission measurement systems to be used for the monitoring of an emission source, i.e. the points of measurement, frequency of measurements, equipment used, calibration procedures, data collection and storage procedures and the approach for corroborating calculation and the reporting of activity data, emission factors and alike;

(l)

if applicable, where the so-called ‘fall-back approach’ (Section 5.3) is applied: a comprehensive description of the approach and the uncertainty analysis, if not already covered by items (a) to (k) of this list;

(m)

a description of the procedures for data acquisition, handling activities and control activities as well as a description of the activities (see Section 10.1-3);

(n)

where applicable, information on relevant links with activities undertaken under the Community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) and other environmental management systems (e.g. ISO14001:2004), in particular on procedures and controls with relevance to greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and reporting.

The monitoring methodology shall be changed if this improves the accuracy of the reported data, unless this is technically not feasible or would lead to unreasonably high costs.

A substantial change to the monitoring methodology as part of the monitoring plan shall be subject to the approval of the competent authority if it concerns:

• a change of the categorisation of the installation as laid down in Table 1,

• a change between the calculation-based or the measurement-based methodology used to determine emissions,

• an increase of the uncertainty of the activity data or other parameters (where applicable) which implies a different tier level.

All other changes and proposed changes in monitoring methodology or the underlying data sets shall be notified to the competent authority without undue delay after the operator has become aware of it or could in all reasonableness have become aware of it, unless otherwise specified in the monitoring plan.

Changes to the monitoring plan shall be clearly stated, justified and fully documented in internal records of the operator.

A competent authority shall require the operator to change its monitoring plan if its monitoring plan is no longer in conformity with the rules laid down in these Guidelines.

To exchange information between the competent authorities and the Commission on monitoring, reporting and verification under these guidelines and its coherent application Member States shall facilitate an annual quality assurance and evaluation process of monitoring, reporting and verification initiated by the Commission pursuant to Article 21(3) of Directive 2003/87/EC.