The latest REGATRACE report provides unique insights into and comparisons of European schemes for cross-border transfers of certificates for renewable gas and electricity. Since cooperating between different systems starts with understanding them, the assessment of the European legislative framework forms the basis to outline which energy carriers and types of certificates are covered by the assessed schemes. Under the task lead of ERGaR, AIB’s EECS gas and electricity schemes, CertifHy’s hydrogen scheme and ERGaR’s CoO scheme were described and compared against more than 100 criteria. The ERGaR RED MB scheme was  introduced but not included in the full comparison as the scheme rules have not yet been made public.

Across Europe, different national systems and databases are in operation for the verification and documentation of the origin and the characteristics of renewable energy carriers. In most cases, system operators are appointed by national governments or stakeholders for the issuance of renewable energy certificates in order to address national circumstances and comply with regulatory requirements. Trading of such renewable energy certificates between national schemes benefits from international harmonisation, particularly when including cross-border trades between Member States. It is prone to fraud and errors if many bilateral agreements on legal and organisational issues and individual technical solutions for the exchange of data have to be developed.

Europe-wide schemes, comprising the necessary organisational and IT-structure, are in operation or are currently under development for different energy carriers and different application purposes. To avoid any multiple counting of the same production energy amounts, recorded by the different databases and issuing bodies, it is important that existing schemes with each other. European schemes provide solutions to overcome these barriers which comprise:

  • IT solution for the exchange of data,
  • harmonised content and format of exchange certificates,
  • rules and standards for verification of renewable energy characteristics,
  • joint terms and conditions for the exchange of certificates.

The report provides an overview and comparison of the mentioned schemes to point out how the different schemes address the various criteria. It identifies high-level commonalities and can be used as a basisto provide a robust organisational framework for the European renewable gas/energy market.

This unique report was prepared in collaboration of AIB Association of Issuing Bodies, ERGaR European Renewable Gas Registry, HINICIO, AGCS Gas Clearing and Settlement AG, Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH dena, and ISINNOVA.

The report is available for download here.