Russia Ministry of Energy: The Market Council begins to develop a system for coordinating the use of “green” instruments

The NP Market Council Association will develop a voluntary system for coordinating the use of various “green” instruments. The corresponding initiative was approved by the Supervisory Board of the Association on September 28, 2021.

The main goal of the creation and implementation of the system is to ensure the circulation in Russia of various types of “green” instruments – bilateral agreements, certificates and others – used to confirm the consumption of electricity generated by renewable energy sources and low-carbon generating facilities.

At the moment in Russia interested producers and buyers of “green” electricity use the existing model of bilateral contracts, as well as certificates of the international system I-REC, to confirm its origin. This process is actively developing, but at the same time it carries a number of risks and limitations: for example, the possibility of overlapping volumes transmitted using various instruments, or the inconsistency of the total number of instruments used with the commercial accounting data for the production of “clean” electricity.

“The existing free contracts are intended primarily for trade in electricity and capacity and generally do not provide for the transfer of environmental rights. To use UDV as “green” contracts, it is necessary to modify them in accordance with the requirements set forth in the basic international standards. The creation of the system will make it possible to develop and put into circulation on the Russian energy market standard terms of “green” contractual instruments to minimize legal risks, ensure synchronization of the “green” instruments used in the system with commercial accounting data, and also eliminate the risk of overlapping volumes transmitted using various “green” “Instruments”, – said the chairman of the board of the Association “NP Market Council” Maxim Bystrov.

The system being created will be based on the principles of voluntary participation and maximum transparency of the information provided. It will also be open to information interaction with existing certification systems, trading platforms, exchanges and other stakeholders.

Also, as part of the project, it is planned to further elaborate and agree with market participants more detailed conditions for the transfer of environmental attributes of energy using the SDD. In particular, it is proposed to develop and agree on a set of additional standard conditions for the “green UDV”, which the parties can additionally sign to the usual bilateral agreement on the market. The fact that such conditions are accepted by the UDV parties on the wholesale electricity market will be indicated during its registration in the trading system and automatically recorded in the register of “green” instruments.

“In addition, we propose to consolidate and introduce into permanent use the very concept of“ green tools ”in the Russian power industry – a set of all documents and mechanisms by which manufacturers transfer to consumers reliably recorded information about the characteristics of generation, as well as special rights allowing to use the information received. when calculating the volume of indirect energy emissions of greenhouse gases, make statements about “green” energy consumption, apply “green” labeling, and so on. The use of common terminology by all market participants will be the first step towards streamlining the carbon footprint tracking system in the energy sector, ”added Maxim Bystrov.

The technical and organizational implementation of the project at the initial stage will be carried out by the Association “NP Market Council”.