GOs for new energy carriers are coming
18.10.2021
MARKUS KLIMSCHEFFSKIJ
As the GO system extends, there is a need for new IT systems to handle these new energy carriers. This creates a need for their purchase, which can mean a large investment per each energy carrier. As the market is emerging, the payback periods of these investments risk becoming long.
I guess we’ve all been there. Ourselves or our daughters and sons have been extremely excited about a new hobby and want to become world champions or at least regional elites. The equipment is expensive and must, of course, be bought upfront. After a month, the riding saddle or electric guitar is covered under a pile of clothes, hidden and forgotten, unlike the effect on your bank account.
Our approach towards acquiring IT systems tends to be similar. We know we must buy a system prior to using it and most presumably it will cost a lot. This can be described as a “hockey-stick” effect where most of the system cost is borne upfront before it is in use. The evolution of system use on the other hand is typically a “reverse hockey stick”, where it slowly gathers momentum and grows. Thus, we are typically able to recover our costs from the purchase much later, if ever.
What I’m writing about is extremely topical. During the past two decades, European countries have invested significantly in registry systems for guarantees of origin (GO) for electricity. Now, with the extension of the GO system for
1) gas,
2) hydrogen and
3) heating and cooling,
European countries are facing a risk of 4-folding these investments in the short-term future.
There are approximately 30 countries in Europe and if we multiply that with the number of energy carriers, we end up with 120 “hockey stick” IT projects running in parallel silos without any cost or burden sharing for registry implementation between issuing bodies for different energy carriers. Counting in electricity GOs, which will also undergo changes and not to mention that the systems will be separate for offgrid and grid gas as well as hydrogen in some countries…
The hockey stick phase can last anything from months to years or decades. Or it could even never end, as we don’t have a guarantee that the new GO systems will be adopted by the market and end users, especially if we impose too high costs at start. Clearly, we need a better approach.
Avoid the hockey stick and let the market grow
For more than a decade, Grexel has supplied its customers with state-of-the-art GO registry solutions without upfront investments using a Registry as a Service (RaaS) model. For the past 3 years we have been developing our next generation registry solution, G-REX, which is now ready for launch. The key feature of G-REX is that it adapts to the requirements of all energy carriers with a single registry solution and adheres fully with the changing requirements of the CEN 16325 and other European legislation and industry standards.
Having a single registry doesn’t prevent separating the systems for different energy carriers within a country, whilst still sharing the same platform. The level of separation of the registry between the GO systems for different energy carriers can be freely customized according to national needs.
The hockey season is upon us and the time for Registry as a Service model is now more important than ever! No one knows how fast the GO systems for gas, hydrogen as well as heating and cooling will develop. With a service model, your country will avoid multiple upfront investment costs into parallel GO systems which might take years or decades to gain momentum whilst operating on a leading registry platform from day one.
Key reasons to choose G-REX as the platform for new energy carrier GO systems include:
- Running on service model without upfront investments.
- Guaranteed compliance with all European regulation and standards as part of the service without extra cost or work in defining complex change requests.
- A highly customizable product, which caters the needs for all energy carriers either in a single domain within a country or in separate domains running on the same platform.
- Cloud native platform, which automatically scales to the need of the specific domain and in which all functions can be accessed using APIs.
- Fast and modern user interface which allows excel-like filtering and sorting of all data.
We are with you for the long haul
Unlike a traditional IT company, Grexel lives and breathes with the GOs and consider our future tied with them for the next decades instead of years. We don’t want to build 120 brand new, custom-made hockey sticks, because that would not serve the GO system in the long run.
Our 25 years of history in providing energy certificate registries has incorporated the IT and business logic of GOs in our DNA so that we know precisely what is important in running a GO registry. Now, we see the potential and importance in facilitating the growth for new energy carrier GO systems and want to be there with you, nurturing their growth.
We don’t want to re-invent the wheel 120 times, but have put together a bike, which allows a fast-track to meet the regulatory requirements and serve the market in the constantly changing environment.
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Registry as a Service is a brilliant idea. Often countries are prevented to trade GOs just because of IT, regulatory hurdles as lack of bilateral agreements and/or overall harmonization issues, so having a readily done registry platform can considerably smooth the process and luckily bring more players to the guarantees of origin market faster. Great initiative, Grexel!