Tools and methodologies to assess HV products’environmental impacts: state of the art and future trends

Assessment (LCA). More and more tools and methods are available and increasingly comprehensive to perform LCA. Nevertheless, the relevance of the results is intrinsically linked to the quality of the data used, whether it relates to the product or system studied (specific data) or the data from generic databases for calculating environmental impacts. Reliability of data stays critical as today LCA becomes a decision-making tool. LCA results are used to support strategic business choices such as product range direction or in commercial relationships as a discrimination criterion for bids. Tomorrow LCA results could be used to answer regulation with reporting at product, factory or company level.

First the paper gives a state of the art of available tools and methodologies to assess HV products’ environmental impacts. An overview of the latest methodologies and under development for power system equipment, is also discussed.

Then, an overview of the different types of data used throughout the LCA process is presented, depending both on the maturity of the project development and at different stages of the LCA process. Illustration will be proposed with case study on High Voltage equipment highlighting the variability of emission factors used in LCA and influence on the results. 1 At the end, the paper will propose adapted and recommended environmental assessment approach linked to project's maturity. For instance, the methodology used at product development (R&D product), tendering phase or execution phase should not be the same as data maturity is different.