Article 9(3) of the Benchmarking Decision defines the historical activity level for the purpose of cross-boundary heat flows in the following way:
“The heat-related historical activity level shall refer to the median annual historical import from an installation covered by the Union scheme, production, or both, during the baseline period, of measurable heat consumed within the installation’s boundaries for the production of products, for the production of mechanical energy other than used for the production of electricity, for heating or cooling with the exception of the consumption for the production of electricity, or exported to installations or other entity not covered by the Union scheme with the exception of the export for the production of electricity expressed in terajoule per year.”
This definition seems to be somewhat difficult readable, thus the Guidance Document n°6 on the harmonized free allocation methodology for the EU-ETS post 2012 Cross-Boundary Heat Flows Final version issued on 14 April 2011 makes the following justification:
For the purpose of cross-boundary heat flows, historical activity level can be summarized as:
the measurable heat produced by ETS installations and:
- consumed within the installation’s boundaries
OR
- exported to non-ETS entities unless it is used for the production of electricity or for the production of mechanical energy that is used for the production of electricity.