Global coverage: Real-time electricity grid data for 110+ additional countries

Electricity Maps has expanded its coverage to accelerate global decarbonization efforts — now delivering real-time carbon intensity and energy mix data for over 200 countries and territories through its API and app.

Increased coverage

We’ve released granular electricity data for over 110 additional countries and territories to the Electricity Maps platform, allowing us to provide almost complete coverage for Canada, the African continent, South America, and other highly requested regions such as North Korea and Greenland. In total, Electricity Maps now collects, processes and distributes grid insight for over 200 countries and territories around the world.

The coverage expansion is made possible with our newly deployed General Purpose Zone Development model. The data for these new zones includes hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly carbon intensity metrics for electricity consumption as well as production, calculated using our advanced flow-tracing engine. By incorporating a wide range of weather data, we can deliver actionable real-time carbon intensity estimates for each region.

Current coverage for these countries spans up to 2023, with plans to expand historical data availability to 2017 in the coming weeks. Soon-to-be-released updates will provide coverage for China, Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

Why global coverage matters

This expansion of Electricity Maps unlocks previously inaccessible electricity data, driving greater transparency into global electricity grids and supporting crucial decarbonization efforts. 

Large, globally dispersed companies, such as leading tech companies running energy-intensive data centers, have a significant role to play in decarbonizing our global electricity grids. Based on our close relationships with such partners like Google, Microsoft and Samsung, we understand the importance of having access to global standardized electricity data to drive their ambitious emissions reduction efforts. 

Already today, global enterprises benefit from using our API to:   

• Report global Scope 2 emissions in line with leading standards, such as the GHG protocol and SBTi criteria‍
• Monitor and accelerate their progress toward net-zero sustainability goals
• Analyze global electricity grids to inform strategic decisions to reduce their emissions
• Enable their customers around the world to measure and report Scope 3 emissions related to product use, such as global IT infrastructure

This extended coverage also unlocks opportunities for local businesses that previously lacked access to granular electricity insights for their regions. Global decarbonization depends on actions across the globe — from companies like Monta reducing emissions at European EV charge points to IT manufacturers in Asia optimizing energy-intensive production or renewable energy developers in Africa.

Moreover, providing global historical and real-time carbon intensity and energy mix insights in our free Electricity Maps app allows users to understand electricity emissions from their local grid to the farthest corners of the world — whether they are energy experts, heads of state or curious individuals. 

Methodology: Overcoming data limitations with advanced machine learning

Our latest release of grid zones tackles the critical challenge of limited data availability. Many regions report only yearly electricity production figures, making it difficult to derive the detailed hourly insights needed for effective analysis. Using advanced machine-learning and real-time weather data, we are now able to estimate hourly electricity production in regions where only yearly data is available. 

We can summarize the complexities of the General Purpose Development Model in the following steps: First, monthly electricity production is estimated for each energy source by analyzing seasonal patterns, informed by temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation data. Next, the data is refined into hourly production figures, ensuring alignment with the zone’s annual totals while reflecting local weather-driven trends. Our proprietary flow-tracing pipeline then calculates grid consumption data, accounting for imports, exports, and grid complexity. Despite the data limitations, this model ensures the highest possible accuracy, ensuring the total electricity produced each hour matches the zone's yearly electricity production data.

Read more about the methodology of the General Purpose Zone Development model here.

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If you’re interested in leveraging our granular carbon intensity data to track and reduce electricity emissions, we’d love to collaborate with you and share our expertise.