Electricity Transmission and Distribution in the IO tables

[WesIngwersen]

Given the intention to disaggregate the electricity sector, aside from generation there is also Transmission and Distribution. How they be handled in a disaggregated model?

[WesIngwersen]

Make them margins. T&D are a significant source of cost differences in region and for different user types that is as of now muddled in the delivery of electricity at producer price. It would be more consistent with how delivery of other fuel sources are handed to treat them like margins. This way we can actually have different prices as well for different users which is more realistic (for purchaser price but not for producer price), and also better reflects the physical delivery system and how its represented in other LCA databases. Other LCA databases have traditionally used delivery of different voltage types to different customers, where heavy industry has "high voltage" or "medium voltage" inputs and small users like households use "low voltage". In part this represents where more substations to step down the voltage are required for distribution to household type users.  Heavy industry will get electricity right from transmission lines, akin to getting it from wholesalers, and have their own internal substations to lower it for their own use.  We could use the physical system  information at least by industry type to partition the transmission and distribution margins to sectors.