Henan Zhengzhou Grid Connected Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant

Audit Analysis

A CDM fossil-fuel-switch project (natural gas replacing coal) with VVB-confirmed additionality and a jurisdictional grid baseline, but undermined by a significant grid emission factor discrepancy between the PDD and monitoring report, inconsistent leakage justifications, and verified emissions reductions running at roughly one-quarter of the pro-rata expectation for the elapsed crediting period. Multiple material findings were identified during verification but all corrective actions were resolved.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Grid emission factor differs by 27% between the PDD (0.6494 tCO2/MWh) and the 2012 monitoring report (0.4733 tCO2/MWh), creating uncertainty about which value underpins the credit calculation
• ⚠Verified emissions reductions of 174,708 tCO2e for the monitoring period represent only ~25% of the pro-rata expectation (~691,500 tCO2e) derived from the PDD lifetime estimate of 4,840,513 tCO2e over the 7-year crediting period
• ⚠Leakage justification is inconsistent across documents: the 2008 monitoring report states leakage was 'deemed negligible' while the 2012 monitoring report states it was 'quantified', yet the deduction remains 0% in both cases
• ⚠The monitoring report (2012) notes the actual monitoring system was not fully consistent with the registered monitoring plan since February 2012

Credit Vintages