Issuance of guarantees of origin for electricity temporarily suspended as of 1 July – legislative reform underway
The issuance of guarantees of origin for electricity will be temporarily suspended in July due to delays in the legislative reform process. Finextra will issue guarantees of origin in July for energy generated in June as normal, in accordance with the existing terms and conditions of service. Guarantees of origin will be issued retroactively for the suspension period.
The issuance of guarantees of origin for electricity will be suspended as of 1 July. Guarantees of origin for electricity are issued in Finland by Fingrid’s subsidiary Finextra, and the suspension of issuance is due to delays in the process to reform the legislation on guarantees of origin.
In Finland, the bill concerning EU member states is currently being debated in Parliament, and the date when the act will take effect is not yet known. Consultations on the decree related to the act will begin in June, and it is likely to take effect after the summer. If the legislation is delayed, so will the administrative process regarding Finextra’s terms and conditions of service. Fingrid can only submit its new terms and conditions of service for guarantees of the origin of electricity based on the new legislation to the Energy Authority for approval once the act and decree have taken effect. For our part, we are striving to minimise the delay.
Guarantees of origin will be issued in July for energy generated in June as normal, in accordance with the existing terms and conditions of service.
EU directive to also cover renewable heat, renewable gases and nuclear power, among others
The reformed EU legislation on guarantees of origin will add renewable heat and cooling, waste heat, renewable gases and nuclear power to the system for granting guarantees of origin and the certification obligation, which already cover renewable electricity. The new requirements must be implemented in EU member states by 30 June 2021.
The draft bill provides for a transition period, which gives register controllers until 1 November 2021 to begin complying with the obligations of the new legislation. However, the guarantees of origin generated during the suspension period, i.e. after 30 June, must beissued retroactively.
We will keep you up to date with the progress of the process for approving the legislation and the terms and conditions of service. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this change.
Further information:
Kirsi Salmivaara, Fingrid, kirsi.salmivaara@fingrid.fi
More information is available on our website: > https://www.fingrid.fi/en/electricity-market/guarantees-of-origin/
Term explanation:
Guarantees of Origin (GO) for electricity are certificates that can be used to verify that electricity has been produced from renewable energy sources or by high-efficiency cogeneration. If an electricity vendor sells or markets renewable energy or if a company otherwise communicates the origin of the electricity it uses, the company should first certify the origin of the electricity and the proportion of renewable energy sources. Certification takes place in the guarantee of origin certificate registry managed by Fingrid. The register is used to grant, use, transfer – within Finland or between European countries – and invalidate guarantee of origin certificates. The register accepts power plants that meet the statutory requirements. The guarantee of origin service will expand with the new act.