Biomethane Certificates
Definition of certificates
A certificate system must be based on a transparent and reliable documentation system. A biomethane certificate contains essential information describing the biomethane product, which is presented in a harmonised way in the form of attributes.
The terms „biomethane certicate“ or “certificate of origin” represent all types of electronic documents to document the requirements and quality criteria of a respective biomethane consignment. Due to different legal matters, there are different functions, applications and relevance of biomethane certificates for different application purposes. However, the certificates always serve as evidence for certain quality and quantity of the produced energy content of biomethane.
Technical specification of certificates
The data fields on the electronic document (certificate) are referred to as attributes and comprise information on the production plant, energy amount and energy carrier, production period, quality criteria such as used input materials (biomass, substrates) and information on the production process. Attributes represent the core part of biomethane certificates. Since different quality criteria have different monetary effects for producers and consumers, attributes define the monetary value of the related biomethane product.
From a technical perspective, attributes are the IT data fields of the database of the registry system. From organisational perspective, attributes must be comprehensive and conclusive, to describe the related biomethane product in full detail, even in case producer and consumer are not in a personal relationship and may not visit the production process together. Attributes must be designed in a versatile manner to meet existing and future legal and market requirements.
In collaboration with its partner registries, AGCS has harmonised its set of attributes to enable (semi-)automatic business processes for the title transfer of biomethane certificates, on national as well as on European level.
The attributes are categorised into four levels in an illustrative way.
Four attribute levels of AGCS biomethane certificates
- Level 1 - Plant-specific master data
- Data entries on certificates: Static: the same information is provided on each certificate of a respective production plant
- Type of data: Master data of the production plant
- Verification and auditing of data: audit report by independent third-party auditor; initial audit, administrative notification by Austrian state governors
- Example data: Country of origin, production plant type, metering point, etc.
- Level 2 – Quantitative data
- Data entries on certificates: Dynamic: data which are specific for each respective biomethane consignment and production period are provided on biomethane certificate
- Type of data: Data on the energy carrier, data on the injected energy amount in the unit kWh
- Verification and auditing of data: Based on meter data from DSOs delivered as part of the clearing of the Austrian balancing group system
- Example data: Energy amount in the unit kWh; European transfers are executed in the unit MWh
- Level 3 - Qualitative data, quality criteria
- Data entries on certificates: Dynamic: data which are specific for each respective biomethane consignment and production period are provided on biomethane certificate
- Type of data: Input: biomass, substrates; sustainability: incl. GHG-emission reductions and mass balancing criteria
- Verification and auditing of data:
- audit report by independent third-party auditor
- sustainability: Proof of Sustainability following a voluntary scheme recognised by EU Commission
- Example data:
- Types of input material (biomass, substrates)
- information on the treatment and production process
- Sustainability: GHG-emission reduction, name of the voluntary scheme, name of auditor, ID of Proof of Sustainability, etc.
- Level 4 – Transfer-specific data
- Data entries on certificates: Dynamic: data which are specific for each respective title transfer activity are provided on biomethane certificate
- Type of data: No product-related information; prerequisite for IT business processes, partly available on certificate
- Verification and auditing of data: Correctness of data within responsibility of market participants
- Example data: Data on the target registry; Data on the receiving market participant (“target trader”): name, address, ID in target registry
