Evolving Electricity Markets to Consider Carbon-Aware Computing Loads

The operational carbon emissions of computing are largely driven by the carbon footprint of the electricity supply. Here, we describe our vision for how electricity markets could be evolved to better account for carbon-aware consumption from computing and other loads. Specifically, we discuss how consumer preferences for low-carbon power can be expressed e.g. as an explicit carbon cost (similar to a consumer-defined carbon tax) or a cap on the average carbon emissions, how such preferences could be integrated in electricity market design and what their effect on prices and overall emissions might be.