Verification of Renewable Energy Certificates for Sustainability Reporting

As multinational companies move towards sustainable goals and climate-friendly policies, the need for a platform to get access to renewable energy certificates (RECs) becomes more evident. This trend is accelerated by the RE100 global initiative where some of the world’s most influential companies have committed themselves towards adopting a 100% renewable energy portfolio. In 2016, this has led to a pilot project in Singapore with SERIS involved as the Qualified Reporting Entity (QRE) on the TIGRs (Tradable Instrument for Global Renewables) registry. In this role, SERIS verifies the actual “green” energy generated, which then is converted into renewable energy certificates before they can be transferred from the renewable generator to the client. A schematic of the scheme is shown in the figure. Since the pioneering announcement by Apple in 2016 to use RECs in Singapore, the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and Microsoft have also announced their use of RECs in 2017 and 2018, respectively. And others followed suit.

In response to the growing demand from local and multinational companies, driven by national (Singapore Exchange (SGX) Sustainability Reporting) and global initiatives (e.g. RE100, GHG Protocol Scope 2), new REC registries have emerged in Singapore, such as the ones from Singapore Power (launched end of 2018) and from Sembcorp Power (started in 2020).

Over the 5 years since inauguration, the RECs market has seen a steady increase in transactions and players, with the REC ecosystem in 2020 ranging from residential customers to large corporations. This development naturally also stimulated private companies to offer QRE services. From the beginning, the main objective of SERIS was to be a trusted QRE partner, especially in the initial stages where the service and the processes were still largely unknown to local market participants. As the market has matured over time, SERIS will gradually step back and let the private sector take over the QRE services. To ensure that the knowledge gained is continued, SERIS is actively involved in the working group that is currently developing a national standard for RECs under Enterprise Singapore.