Guarantees of Origin

A guarantee of origin is an electronic document stipulated in Section 327 of the Energy Industry Act, issued to the producer to certify the origin and carbon emissions of the produced energy. The guarantee of origin is used to verify the origin and carbon emissions of energy delivered to and consumed by the customer at the metering point.

The administrator of Estonia's guarantee of origin system is the transmission system operator, which issues guarantee of origin in Estonia and manages the electronic database for guarantee of origin, where all operations with these certificates are carried out.

To prove the origin of supplied and consumed energy, only guarantee of origin issued in a European Economic Area contracting state may be used. Certificates of origin are issued for the production of the previous calendar month certificates are not issued for production from earlier periods. One guarantee of origin is issued for each produced megawatt-hour of energy. Kilowatt-hours exceeding a full megawatt-hour are carried over to the next production period.

A guarantee of origin is valid for 18 months following the production of fuel or energy. This means that the guarantee of origin can be deleted to prove the origin of the energy consumed within 18 months after the end of the production period. A guarantee of origin can be transferred to another account within 12 months after the end of the production period of an energy unit.

The standard energy unit of a guarantee of origin is 1 MWh and one guarantee of origin is issued for each standard energy unit produced.

The transmission system operator issues guarantees of origin for

  • electricity (the electronic database is available here)
  • biomethane (the relevant electronic database is available here)
  • hydrogen (the relevant electronic database is available here)

Legislation

On the European level, the area of guarantees of origin is regulated by the Renewable Energy Directive.

The Estonian rules for guarantees of origin are established by the Energy Management Organisation Act and by the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure’s Regulation No. 69 “The procedure for issuing, transferring, and deleting a guarantees of origin and the composition of information to be submitted when applying for a certificate of origin”.

Cross-border transfer of certificates of origin via AIB

Since September 2014, as the Estonian domain representative, the transmission system operator has been a member of the Association of Issuing Bodies or AIB. AIB manages the central electronic registry for guarantees of origin (the AIB hub), which facilitates international trading of guarantees of origin and promotes a standardised pan-European regulatory framework for certificates of origin (European Energy Certificate System or EECS). The list of AIB members is available on the AIB website.

The cross-border transfer of electricity guarantees of origin is conducted via the AIB hub; the activation of biomethane guarantees of origin cross-border transfer via the AIB hub is in progress. At present, cross-border transfer requests for biomethane are handled on a case-by-case basis, considering the valid rules and solutions of the foreign state.

At the international level, Estonia’s regulatory framework related to guarantees of origin is documented in the Estonian Domain Protocol – a document approved by AIB, confirming that the rules in force in Estonia comply with the EECS rules managed by AIB.

For questions or suggestions regarding guarantees of origin for electricity or thermal energy, please contact go@elextra.ee. For questions or suggestions regarding guarantees of origin for biomethane or hydrogen, please contact biometaan@elextra.ee.