JANICE LIM Today Online 29 Oct 18;
SINGAPORE — From the middle of next year, households can ensure that their energy is derived from green sources by buying "green credits" through a blockchain-powered online platform set up by power grid operator SP Group.
Calling it a world's first, SP Group launched the digital marketplace for renewable energy certificates (RECs) on Monday (Oct 29).
The RECs, or “green credits”, contain information on the source of the renewable energy, how much energy is being generated, and exported to the grid, and must be purchased at an additional cost.
Currently open only to businesses, the sale and purchase of RECs will be made available to general consumers from the mid-2019.
While the trading of RECs is not new, it used to be done through a manual process, where the sales team of energy producers had to secure individual contracts with the buyers.
With its new online platform, SP Group said buyers will be automatically matched with sellers around the globe, based on their preferences.
This new platform will also reduce the minimum trading volume from 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) to 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh), which will allow smaller producers, even households with the capacity to produce their own green energy, to participate in the buying and selling of RECs.
Typically, 1 MWh of electricity can power a four-room Housing and Development Board flat for about 2.5 months, while 1 kWh can power a refrigerator for about a day.
“This helps big and small organisations to achieve their green targets and strengthens cross-border sustainability efforts with SP’s international reach. It contributes to Singapore’s low carbon targets, as part of its Paris COP-21 agreement,” said SP Group in a media statement on Monday, referring to the Paris climate change deal in 2015.
The online platform allows both local and international organisations to trade in RECs, and also supports the selling of local, regional and international RECs. It also supports different suppliers of renewable energy including types of sellers and renewable energy sources, SP Group said.
“The unique attributes of blockchain technology will ensure the security, integrity and traceability of each REC transaction”, it added in the statement.
Among its first REC buyers were two local companies: property developer City Developments and lender DBS Bank.
Solar developers Cleantech Solar Asia and LYS Energy Solutions have signed a collaboration with SP to place their solar assets on the marketplace for sale of RECs.
Chemical logistics company Katoen Natie Singapore, which will be launching Singapore’s largest single unit rooftop solar facility at a warehouse, has also come onboard as a REC seller, SP Group said.
SP Group launches platform for households, small producers of solar energy to sell 'green credits'
Jose Hong Straits Times 29 Oct 18;
SINGAPORE - It is now easier for small producers of solar energy in Singapore to sell "green credits" to buyers keen to offset their carbon footprint.
To link up these buyers and sellers, SP Group has launched a digital marketplace powered by blockchain technology, thus ensuring safe, transparent and fast transactions.
The power utilities firm believes that this is the world's first blockchain-powered marketplace in renewable energy certificates (REC), a tradable document used to offset the use of non-clean energy.
The initiative was announced on Monday (Oct 29) at the Asean Energy Business Forum at Marina Bay Sands.
For now, only small firms can access the marketplace, but it will open to households by the middle of next year.
SP Group chief digital officer Samuel Tan said: "We are thinking of products that will help our consumers choose sustainability."
He added: "Through blockchain technology, we enable companies to trade in renewable energy certificates conveniently, seamlessly and securely, helping them achieve greener business operations and meet their sustainability targets."
Currently, RECs are bought and sold in Singapore through a manually intensive process, where it is hard for small-scale buyers like consumers to find sellers and where prices need to be negotiated between both sides.
The blockchain marketplace will automate the selling and verification process, and make it easier to connect buyers and sellers.
Any clean energy producer in the world that produces 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity can be issued one REC. This REC not only serves as proof that the electricity is sustainable, but is also a document that can be sold.
The goal of these certificates is to encourage the production of green energy.
As a four-room Housing Board flat uses only about 12 kilowatt-hour (kwh) of electricity a day, SP Group's blockchain marketplace will allow the trading of RECs in 0.001 units. This will open up the the buying and selling of RECs, nowadays mostly done by large companies, to much smaller players like households.
The online marketplace will also allow interested sellers and buyers to find each other quickly. Local companies that have signed up include property giant City Developments Limited (CDL) and bank DBS.
A CDL spokesman said: "Participating in SP's blockchain-powered trading of RECs will help CDL to step up efforts to reduce carbon emissions more conveniently, seamlessly and securely."
The developer said it aims to be powered completely by renewable energy by 2050, and that buying RECs would be one of the strategies it uses towards this goal.
One seller of these certificates here is chemical logistics company Katoen Natie Singapore, which will soon launch Singapore's largest single unit rooftop solar facility.
A spokesman said: "Katoen Natie will be embarking on a second phase of expansion for our solar energy plant here in Singapore. With the expansion, we are expecting excess capacity that can be traded on the REC platform."
The marketplace is accessible here: www.spgroup.com.sg/rec
