Guarantees of Origin and the Energy Community: greening the Balkans

In January 2022, the Energy Community (an international organisation which brings together the European Union and its neighbours to create an integrated pan-European energy market) and Grexel launched a project to create an EU-regulation compatible Guarantees of Origin (GO) trading scheme to the Energy Community member countries. 

GO systems and IT-infrastructure for the area were built during the project. The goal was to build the architecture needed for regulators to allow entry to the European market. 

GOs from non-EEA countries are not currently recognised for disclosure in the EU. 

The Renewable Energy Directive (RED) III outlines that the European Commission decides on the market entry criteria. Today this criteria does not exist. 

This excludes Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB)-members like Serbia and Switzerland from the European market.  

However, Serbia and Switzerland mutually recognize each others Guarantees of Origin. Both adhere to the AIB EECS-standard on their issuances.   

Today Albania, Republika Sprska in Bosnia Herzegovina and Georgia all issue Energy Community (EnC) Guarantees of Origin. They are also able to trade GOs internationally with each other. Serbian EECS GOs are only traded through the AIB HUB internationally.   

Were Energy Community-issued GOs to be recognised within the EU, it would have dramatic effect on the market development in the region. 

According to an article by Montel Energetika, the eventual recognition of Energy Community (Serbia excluded) GOs would increase the market size by 60 TWh from the current 750-800 TWh.

Announcements from the latest Energy Community conference in Ljubljana stated concrete steps to achieve these goals. 

The next Energy Community Ministerial Council will happen on December 14. The European Commission will present their plan for recognizing the Energy Community-GO there.   

The upcoming recognition roadmap may also encourage other Energy Community member countries to join both the GO trading scheme and the AIB. 

There is significant interest towards AIB membership in the area already today. RES (one of the Issuing Bodies of Bosnia Herzegovina) is an observer to the AIB, while COTEE (the Issuing Body of Montenegro) is currently applying to join the organisation. 

Albania, on the other hand, aims to become a full member of the AIB as soon as possible. This would allow the trading of Albanian EECS GOs through the AIB HUB, while their EnC-GO could still also be traded within the Energy Community scheme.   

In the coming years it will be interesting to see how the Balkan Guarantees of Origin both shape energy infrastructure in the area (through generating additional funds to renewable energy sources) and influencing the European Guarantees of Origin markets more widely.