The interaction between Electricity Disclosure and Tradable Green Certificates

Abstract

Guarantees of Origin (GO) and Electricity Disclosure, as defined in the EU’s Renewable Energy and Electricity Market Directives, require that European consumers should be provided with reliable information about the origin of their electricity supply. At the same time, the Renewable Energy Directive requires that support mechanisms be implemented with the aim of increasing the proportion of energy from renewable sources. The Quota System with Tradable Green Certificates (TGC) was established in Sweden as a support mechanism in 2003 and is, from 2012, planned to be extended to become a Swedish–Norwegian system. This article discusses the effects of Electricity Disclosure and the TGC system when working as two separate entities, and the potential interaction between the systems when working in tandem. It appears that Electricity Disclosure may create a customer-driven demand for renewable electricity, which can supplement the TGC system. In the long-term, GOs may thus influence the decisions made by investors in renewable energy. However, currently Electricity Disclosure has very low, or no, impact on the total production of electricity from renewable sources when compared with a stand-alone TGC system.