White paper
Tracking Renewable Energy Usage in TRUST Systems :
RE100 Platform TM
sesu.ai
November 2022
4F, 2726, Nambusunhwan-ro, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of KOREA
jazzson@sesu.ai
1. Background
Companies can make a variety of statements about renewable electricity (RE) relating to its development, generation, use, and environmental and social benefits and impacts. But the ability to demonstrate and claim use or delivery of RE on a shared electricity distribution network, or, “grid”, requires the support of markets and contractual instruments that meet the specific criteria to be credible.
This white paper provides a set of criteria that RE sources and purchasing mechanisms must meet in order to support credible RE usage and delivery claims. These criteria can be applied across a range of local electricity market conditions and RE market development levels. This briefing also provides guidance for verification, reporting and communications of RE use.
2. Claiming Use of Renewable Electricity
RE usage claims are claimed by a specific grid customer or a group of customers to be receiving or consuming RE, and/or claims by a supplier or distributor to be delivering or supplying RE to a specific grid customer or a group of customers. In other words, these are an electricity user’s claims to specified renewable generation. For example:
“ Our company uses renewable electricity.”
“ Our company uses wind energy to make this product.”
“ This facility is solar powered.”
“ This group of customers is receiving renewable electricity.”
“ We procured renewable electricity for all our operations.”
Making claims around the use of RE requires the defining of renewable “attributes” of generation, or that which defines the manner of production as renewable. Attributes include everything that identifies the generation source and all non-power outputs, including the fuel type, location, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the other environmental and social impacts and benefits of the electricity generation. Defining and allocating generation attributes contractually is essential since physical electricity is indistinguishable based on how it was produced and untraceable on a grid with many different connected generation sources. In other words, generation attributes are not physically delivered or knowable, and use of specified electricity on a shared grid can only be determined contractually.
Therefore, making credible RE use claims depends largely on effectively tracking RE attributes, verifying exclusive delivery by generators and suppliers, and verifying exclusive ownership of attributes by grid customers buying RE.
3. Making Credible Renewable Electricity Usage Claim
The requirements for a credible RE usage claim and the criteria for contractual allocation of attributes are as follows:
3.1 Credible generation data
Accurate generation data are critical as the basis for any RE usage claims. Static data (e.g. fuel type, location, date of first operation, etc.) should be third-party verified, a common practice of attribute tracking systems. Dynamic data (quantity of generation) are best when metered using a “revenue-grade meter” and independently used as the basis for determining the quantity of attributes and certificate issuance.
Companies should be cautious of making claims where static data cannot be verified by third-parties and/or generation data is not metered.
3.2 Exclusive claims
To the extent that tracking systems prevent double issuance and other forms of double counting, tracking systems alone will not necessarily ensure exclusive claims, i.e. that there are no other claims being made on either the attributes (including emissions) or electricity as renewable. Where energy attribute certificates can be sold separately from electricity, the electricity buyer does not have an exclusive RE use claim unless they own and retire the certificates, and likewise the certificate buyer does not have an exclusive usage claim where the electricity is also being claimed/reported as renewable or individual attributes are being claimed/transacted in another way. This requires that all RE instruments or instruments representing individual generation attributes (e.g. carbon offsets issued for renewable energy generation) have been retired by or on behalf of the same entity and that there are no other usage claims being made on the generation or attributes, for example, by the electricity supplier to meet a RE delivery target or in marketing that RE is being delivered to customers.
3.3 Geographic market boundaries
Attributes (and certificates) must be sourced and purchased from within the same defined geographic region that constitutes a “market” for the purpose of transacting and claiming attributes. Ideally this “market boundary” would be clearly defined, but in general it refers to an area in which the laws and regulatory framework governing the electricity sector are sufficiently consistent between the areas of production and consumption. As such, transactions that are both international and intercontinental are not usually appropriate unless there is physical interconnection (indicating a level of system-wide coordination between countries) and ideally if these countries’ utilities or energy suppliers recognize each other’s instruments. Within a single country or multiple countries in a common regulatory framework (e.g. U.S. and E.U. respectively), there may be multiple grid distribution regions where electricity is physically delivered. Because of the regulatory consistency, the geographic market for attributes is not necessarily constrained to the area in which it is possible to physically deliver electricity within the grid. There are advantages to larger market boundaries that allow consumers to source RE where it may be less expensive to create, while other programs or companies may prioritize sourcing from the same grid region as their consumption in order to support more local jobs or economic development.
4. Verification of RE requirements and claims
For example, a company may wish not only to claim use of RE, but more specifically that 60% of their operations are powered by RE. Verifying this claim involves not only demonstrating that the company may credibly claim use of RE in accordance with the requirements in the previous section, but also that the amount of RE purchased (quantity of attributes) equals 60% of their operations, which involves calculations of overall consumption.
This means that claims should be specific enough to ensure reasonable understanding of the materiality of the RE purchase.
For example, it may be accurate for a company to state “we buy renewable electricity”, but if the purchase only represents 1% of the company’s total global electricity use, the lack of specificity may lead to confusion.
When making a public claim, companies should consider:
· The purchasing option that was employed (e.g. consumption from an owned, onsite facility, direct purchase by way of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), retail purchase from an energy supplier, purchase of unbundled certificates, etc.);
· The boundary of the consumption being addressed with the purchase (e.g. consumption at a local facility, for the totality of operations within a country, for manufacturing of a specific product, etc.);
· The type of RE used/represented by the purchase (e.g. wind, geothermal, etc.);
· The amount or percentage of RE purchased;
· The timeframe of the purchase, i.e. the period of consumption covered by the purchase;
· The length of the company’s commitment to purchasing or consuming RE;
· Any certifications used.
Figure 1. Different types of PPA
A physical PPA is a contract with a renewable energy generator for the delivery of electricity to a site via the power grid.
A virtual PPA replicates the financial contract that is associated with a physical PPA but doesn’t involve the delivery of electricity. It’s essentially a “financial swap” contract that falls outside the scope of physical electricity delivery.
5. RE100 means
RE100 is a global initiative that brings together influential companies committed to 100% renewable electricity. The platform provides a framework for companies to set a goal of using 100% renewable energy and provides resources to help them achieve that goal. By joining RE100, companies show their commitment to the transition to a low-carbon economy and help drive demand for renewable energy. This helps accelerate the shift to renewable energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
6. RE100 Platform TM
Figure 2. Renewable electricity delivery based on RE100 Platform TM
RE100 Platform TM is sesu.ai’s a total solution based on Hardware and Cloud Software.
Figure 3. RE100 Platform TM System block diagram
sesu.ai provides a total solution to track renewable energy use: RE100 Platform TM sesumeter TM , and RE100 Platform TM PPA Dashboard software.
RE100 Platform TM is based on Consortium Blockchain Software which guarantee RE source of origin.
Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology built on a shared network infrastructure and public key encryption, is one way for utilities to provide a trustworthy and secure platform for distributed grid and smart device usage.
RE100 Platform TM provides secure transactions by applying smart contract technology. Even in a trustless network, our solution armed by blockchain technology supports trustful Renewable Energy transactions.
RE100 Platform TM manages the flow of electricity and the exchange of energy within electric power systems through the formation and delivery of pricing signals, use of predictive analytics and automation of activities.
Figure 4. RE100 Platform TM Software architecture
RE100 Platform TM supports flexibility to work within any places on this planet by internet connections allowed, which is operated in Cloud Software (SaaS : Software as a Service ).
sesumeter TM is IoT hardware devices, which support to attached to RE100 Platform TM. (Figure 3)
sesumeter TM provides
- RE100 platform Interface
- End-to-End security based on Blockchain IoT edge
- Various connectivity such as WiFi, LTE cat M1, LTE, and RS-485 (Modbus)
Figure 5. sesumeter TM IoT Hardware
Figure 6. RE100 Platform TM Dashboard software
RE100 Platform TM Dashboard software support is state-of-the-art reporting tool to monitor energy transactions in real-time with the help of an interactive interface.
Figure 7. RE100 Platform TM Dashboard software in detail
Figure 8. RE100 Platform TM Dashboard software in detail
Figure 9. RE100 Platform TM PPA Dashboard software
RE100 Platform TM PPA Dashboard software report how much renewable electricity are consumed by renewable electricity consumers and how much renewable electricity are generated by renewable power plants.