Renewable energy guarantees of origin to be issued in Georgia in 2023

Georgia on Jan. 1 became the first country to use a new electronic registry for renewable energy guarantee of origin (GO) certificates, in a move to expand the GO market beyond the EU, according to registry developer Grexel, part of the European Energy Exchange.

Guarantees of Origin are tradable certificates associated with renewable energy production.

The project was developed by the Energy Community, an organization that aims to create an integrated energy market between the EU and its neighbors, primarily in the Balkans and Southern Europe.

While Georgia is the first to fully sign up, electronic GO registries have also been created for Albania, two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine.

Certificates are currently compatible with the European Energy Certificate System (EECS), allowing trade between the countries with new registries, but not within the EU system.

"While the Guarantees of Origin issued in non-EU countries are not yet recognized by the European regulation, the project created a regional registry that is fully technically compatible with the EU system once trading becomes possible," Grexel said.

The registry encouraged other countries in the Energy Community, known as Contracting Parties, to start using the new system too.

"We're of course very happy to see the GO system extend to Georgia. We also expect more countries to sign in the first half of 2023, which will allow trade of the EECS-compatible GOs first in the region and hopefully later also on the European marketplace," said Laura Malinen, Head of Accounts and Communication at Grexel.

The Energy Community said it expected to see more contracts signed by the deadline in June 2023 with national registries and all configurations kept on standby until that date.

Certificates that are eligible to trade within the EU saw prices surge in the second half of 2022 before pulling back a little. Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the EU wind current year GO at Eur6.78/MWh on Jan. 3, from an all-time high of Eur9.76/MWh in early December.