Application of LCA for the Short-Term Management of Electricity Consumption

The application of LCA in the energy consumption management can address the sustainability of energy systems. The chapter first aims at summarizing general trends in addressing environmental implication of energy use. Second, LCA methodology is briefly introduced in order to clarify its potentialities and general use in the energy field area. In particular, LCA can contribute to select the best technological choices for an energy system. A challenge in the use of LCA is identified in the representation of a complex system in which the energy producers' contribution changes on a temporal basis. Two approaches are proposed for the LCA use in the short-term perspective: attributional LCA and consequential LCA. The proposed approach examines the application of LCA in a short-term perspective. Both approaches can be used to analyze an efficient configuration of the system. However, the more the temporal and geographical area is restricted, the more specific issues have to be adopted to provide a reliable analysis. In particular, consequential and attributional approaches should be used under different hypotheses and with proper adaptation. The proposed approach examines the application of consequential LCA in a short-term perspective, defined as the time span in which the market system has not reacted to a change yet. Moreover, it could claim environmental impact savings in the presence of an accurate model that is able to predict the hourly marginal technology of the near future (one day to 1 week). The future application of the proposed approach would be a tool that manages to assess the best hourly consumption trajectory in order to minimize environmental impacts.