Guarantees of origin

Guarantees of origin are issued to a producer who generates electricity with a production device situated in Estonia.

In order to obtain guarantees of origin from electricity, production device must be registered in the Renewable Energy Information System and guarantees of origin account must be opened for producer. Both legal entities and private persons may open producer GO account.

• First, production devices must be registered in the Reneable Energy Information System. When registering a device, please upload a network contract related to the production device into the information system, fill in, sign and upload an application for opening the producer account, the confirmation letter regarding the receipt or non-receipt of investment support, and, for production devices with a capacity of 50 kW or more, please also fill in and sign the production device registration form (if possible, please sign all documents in one folder). By signing the application the market participant confirms that they have read and agree to the Standard Terms and Conditions for the Use of Guarantees of Origin of Electricity.
• If the production device is already registered in the information system, then to join the register of guarantees of origin, a filled in and signed application for opening the producer account and a confirmation letter regarding receipt/non-receipt of investment support must be sent to go@elextra.ee. By signing the application the market participant confirms that they have read and agree to the Standard Terms and Conditions for the Use of Guarantees of Origin of Electricity.
• If a producer has already joined the register of guarantees of origin and wishes to obtain guarantees of origin for its production device that is not registered, the relevant production device must be registered by uploading a valid network contract related to the production device and filled-in and signed confirmation letter regarding the receipt or non-receipt of investment support, and, for production devices with a capacity of 50 kW or more, also filled-in in and signed production device registration form (if possible, please sign all documents in one folder).
• Confirmation about the opening of the account is sent by e-mail.

The Standard Terms and Conditions for the Use of Guarantees of Origin of Electricity have been amended. The updated Terms and Conditions apply as of August 2025 and are available as an attachment.

The quantity of electricity for which a guarantee of origin is issued is determined by a remote reading device and is considered to be the netted production supplied to the network of a system operator operating under an activity license during the trading period and the quantity of electricity transmitted to the consumer through a direct line.

If a device uses biomass and/or several different fuels, it is also necessary to submit a report on the fuel used to generate electricity (and heat in the case of co-generation) for the previous calendar month by the fifth day of each calendar month.

Starting in November 2022, guarantees of origin are issued only for the previous month’s production in accordance with subsection 3 (4) of Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Regulation No. 69 “Rules for issuing, transferring and cancelling a guarantee of origin and the list of particulars to be filed when applying for such a guarantee” of 13 September 2022.

A producer can transfer guarantees of origin to an account of their choice within 12 months following the end of the production period. After that, guarantees of origin cannot be transferred.

Opening a guarantees of origin account, issuing guarantees of origin, and transfers within the register are free of charge. Fees apply to inter-registry transactions. Further details regarding the fees are available here.

If a production device is granted state investment support after 15 June 2022 or a decision is made regarding the production device to start the support period, as a general rule, guarantees of origin are not issued to the producer. According to subsection 32¹⁰ (10) of the Energy Sector Organisation Act, as an exception, guarantees of origin may be issued to a producer only if, on payment of such support, revenue from the guarantees of origin is deducted from the support in accordance with state aid rules, or where the support is set off against the revenue or where the person to receive the support has been determined by means of a reverse auction.

Based on the above, after 15 June 2022, there are the following options for obtaining guarantees of origin when granting support:

• prove that, as is evident from the terms and conditions of support, revenue from the guarantees of origin is deducted from the support when paying the support or that the person to receive the support has been determined by means of a reverse auction;
• waive support;
• or submit an application for offsetting investment support and revenue from the guarantees of origin in accordance with the regulation. If revenue from guarantees of origin has exceeded the value of investment support granted to the same production device, the producer must submit an application and the necessary additional documents to open a guarantees of origin account, following which guarantees of origin are issued to the producer’s account for the output of the same production device starting from the following calendar month.