Renewable Procurement through Energy Attribute Certificates

Abstract:

Across the world, various corporations are setting large targets to achieve 100percentrenewable power consumption. Amidstthe growth spurt of renewable generation across the globe, procurement of renewable energy for corporationsand claimingthe consumption of renewables faced multiple obstacles as the energy produced from the PPA/self-generation is generally fed into the grid,and this poses the threat of double counting in terms of corporate renewable consumption claims.

The Energy Attribute Certificates market has emerged on top of this problem and provides extensive credibility to theway corporations report renewable energy consumption. In addition to tracking the generated RE power and cancelling the same when consumed, EAC products help in the corporates’procurement of renewable power in the short term as comparedto self-generation/PPA options.

However, EACs are used by corporations as transition tools to movefrom very low renewable purchase levels to strategic procurement of renewables on alargescale via self-generation and PPAs.

EAC products available in different regions:

While there are multiple EAC products available globally, RECs in the U.S.and GOs in Europe serve more than 85percentof the EAC market. Each type of EAC, including I-RECs, T-RECs,and TIGRs are managed by their own single-data repository. Thus,the tradability of a particular type of EAC is confined to the available region only.