Explain how Guarantees of Origin and Renewable Energy Certificates are issued, tracked and retired within registries.
Oil, Gas & Energy
Guarantees of Origin, Renewable Energy Certificates and Hourly Clean Power Matching
Covers how Guarantees of Origin and Renewable Energy Certificates are issued and retired, and how buyers move from annual matching toward hourly clean power matching for credible claims.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
A company that buys enough annual Renewable Energy Certificates to cover its electricity use can claim to be one hundred per cent renewable while still drawing fossil power from the grid every night, and the gap between that claim and physical reality is now driving buyers toward hourly, or twenty-four-seven, clean power matching. This course starts with how Guarantees of Origin and Renewable Energy Certificates are actually issued, tracked and retired, including the registries involved and the rules that prevent a single megawatt-hour of generation from being claimed twice. Sessions then examine the practical and reputational limits of annual and monthly matching, and build up the granular, hourly matching approach that pairs a buyer's consumption profile against generation in the same hour and the same grid region. The course covers how power purchase agreements, storage and portfolio diversification are used to close matching gaps during periods when a buyer's chosen generation is not producing, and how additionality is assessed so that a claim reflects genuinely new clean capacity rather than existing generation being relabelled. Participants leave able to assess the credibility of a proposed clean energy claim and design a procurement strategy that moves a real portfolio toward hourly matching.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Identify double-counting and unbundled certificate risks that undermine the credibility of a renewable energy claim.
Compare annual, monthly and hourly matching approaches for their accuracy in reflecting actual consumption timing.
Design an hourly clean power matching strategy that pairs consumption against same-hour, same-region generation.
Use power purchase agreements, storage and portfolio diversification to close hourly matching gaps.
Assess additionality criteria to distinguish genuinely new clean capacity from relabelled existing generation.
Evaluate the credibility of a corporate clean energy claim against current market and disclosure expectations.
Who Should Attend
Corporate energy procurement managers negotiating renewable energy contracts
Sustainability teams reporting clean energy claims to investors and regulators
Utility and generator staff structuring Guarantee of Origin and certificate products
Energy market analysts assessing certificate market liquidity and pricing
Data centre and industrial energy buyers pursuing twenty-four-seven clean power goals
Policy and market design specialists working on granular certificate tracking systems
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Certificate Issuance, Tracking and Retirement
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1How Guarantees of Origin and RECs Are Issued
- Explain the metering and verification process that generates a Guarantee of Origin or Renewable Energy Certificate.
- Describe registry infrastructure used to track certificate issuance, transfer and retirement across markets.
- Compare Guarantee of Origin schemes in Europe against Renewable Energy Certificate schemes in other markets.
- Identify the information a certificate carries, including generation source, location, vintage and technology type.
Session 2Preventing Double Counting and Assessing Unbundled Risk
- Explain the retirement process that prevents a single unit of generation from being claimed by more than one buyer.
- Assess the risks of purchasing unbundled certificates separated from the physical electricity contract.
- Identify cross-border double-counting risks where certificate and physical power markets do not align.
- Evaluate registry safeguards and audit trails that support the integrity of a certificate-based claim.
02From Annual to Granular Matching
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Limitations of Annual and Monthly Matching
- Assess why annual matching can allow a buyer to claim renewable coverage while consuming fossil power overnight.
- Quantify the gap between annual claimed coverage and actual hourly matched clean generation for a sample buyer.
- Identify reputational and regulatory risks arising from claims based on coarse temporal matching.
- Compare monthly matching as an intermediate step toward full hourly granularity.
Session 2Designing Hourly Clean Power Matching
- Build an hourly consumption profile and match it against generation data from the same hour and grid region.
- Identify matching gaps during low-generation hours that require additional procurement or storage solutions.
- Select granular certificate tracking systems capable of hourly issuance and retirement records.
- Set interim and long-term hourly matching targets appropriate to the buyer's portfolio and budget.
03Procurement Instruments for Matching Gaps
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Power Purchase Agreements and Portfolio Diversification
- Structure power purchase agreements that diversify generation technology and location to improve hourly coverage.
- Combine solar, wind and firm low-carbon generation contracts to reduce hours of unmatched consumption.
- Assess shaped and baseload power purchase agreement structures for their contribution to hourly matching.
- Evaluate portfolio concentration risk where multiple contracts share correlated generation profiles.
Session 2Storage and Flexibility for Closing Matching Gaps
- Assess battery storage contracts as a mechanism for shifting matched generation into unmatched hours.
- Evaluate demand flexibility options that shift consumption toward hours with available clean generation.
- Model the cost trade-off between additional storage capacity and residual unmatched consumption hours.
- Plan a phased procurement roadmap that closes matching gaps progressively over several years.
04Additionality and Claim Credibility
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Assessing Additionality in Clean Energy Contracts
- Apply additionality criteria to distinguish contracts that fund new capacity from those recontracting existing assets.
- Assess financial additionality tests used to evaluate whether a power purchase agreement enabled project development.
- Identify greenwashing risk where a claim relies on generation that would have existed regardless of the contract.
- Compare additionality standards used by different voluntary and regulatory disclosure frameworks.
Session 2Communicating Credible Clean Energy Claims
- Draft public claims that accurately reflect the matching methodology and additionality basis behind them.
- Prepare supporting evidence and audit trails that withstand scrutiny from analysts, journalists and regulators.
- Benchmark a company's claim methodology against current market-leading twenty-four-seven procurement practice.
- Plan stakeholder communication that explains progress toward hourly matching without overstating current coverage.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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