TotalEnergies Gas & Power

On Monday 15th April, Adil Ahmed (Product and Go-to-Market Manager) and Ben Charles (Senior Originator) soft launched their Traceable Hourly Products in Major Business. 

Hourly Renewables are the new hot thing in the sustainable energy space, and after consulting with sales and working with Granular Energy (including a trial with our client Savills), they extended their trial phase to attract 10-15 keen customers with a total availability of approximately 2TWh across our Bundled portfolio.

Adil tells us more! 
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What is Hourly Matching?

The hourly matching mechanism is where the amount of energy you use is tracked down to an hourly basis and then compared to the amount of renewable energy that is put into the grid from the REGOs* you purchased. This allows you to look back at the year and understand how close in time your consumption was to the actual output of generators on an hour-by-hour interval.

* Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) is a certificate which demonstrates that electricity has been generated from renewables sources.  

The Product(s)

‘Pure Hourly Renewable (Solar, Wind, Hydro)' and ‘Hourly Renewable (Solar, Wind, Hydro, Biomass)' are products that provide the customer with evidence of how well their use of energy from the grid matches, and can be traced to, the clean energy sources they purchase their REGOs from down to an hourly level.

The customer gets a monthly report with visuals and percentage matching scores and has the option to take advantage of an online dashboard, too.

Why is the market heading this way?

It all goes towards traceability. 

Before hourly renewables entered the market, you could purchase REGOs for an entire compliance period and say your power was 100% renewable, as long as you purchased enough REGOs for your consumption that year. This is good but some customers want to take this further and understand at a more granular level whether their specific consumption profile is being matched with renewable generation and to what level.

For example, if someone purchases solar REGOs (which output during mid-day) but takes power off the grid during the night (or less sunny hours), the consumption could be matched at an annual level, but in reality wouldn’t be supporting usage at those times. Hourly matching can provide this visibility.

By measuring whether consumption happens at the same time interval as when the renewable asset is online, customers can improve their credibility by providing insight into their carbon impact. They can also demonstrate better commitment by knowing the origins and details of their REGOs.

What could be the future?

Analysis of hourly consumption against the generation profile of renewable assets allows businesses to gain insights on where they could shift their consumption patterns to better meet their carbon-zero goals. For example, a business could move their usage to different parts of the day. There’s also the idea that batteries will, at some point, arrive, where customers can store their ‘renewable’ power by understanding when there is a surplus and use it later. Perhaps the most tangible benefits coming soonest are in reporting, accountability, and transparency. And there is talk that the market may move in this direction with an hourly market for REGOs.

👉 If you’d like to know more, here is a slide deck for you: MB Product Resources - OneDrive (sharepoint.com).

📩 Feel free to contact Adil and Ben if you have any question!