ERGaR, The European Renewable Gas Registry

ERGaR, the European Renewable Gas Registry, has set itself the mission of facilitating the cross-border ownership transfer of biomethane certificates between established registries within Europe. The common goal is the overall and European harmonisation of organisational, technical and verification requirements of the existing biomethane registries. The IT solution (ExtraVert platform) is a communication platform that enables established registries to exchange certificates in a transparent and secure manner.

This goal was achieved in June 2021 with the launch of the ERGaR Certificate of Origin Scheme, when the first cross-border transfer of ownership of biomethane certificates via the ERGaR exchange system was performed. The AGCS Biomethane Register Austria has been linked to the ERGaR system since autumn 2021.

This provides Austrian market participants with an expanded market (several European countries up to the whole of Europe) through the design of a single technical interface. This way, the registries enable their registry users to exchange biomethane certificates securely and in a standardised manner across borders. For the exchange, verification properties have been harmonised to enable the transmission and generation of verifications in the respective target registry.

Requirements for cross-border ownership transfers of biomethane certificates:

• The biomethane certificate is intended for the international market. National ownership transfers are not handled through the ERGaR system.
• The transfer of energy quantities is based on the unit MWh (1,000 kWh as the smallest unit, respectively).
• The data transfer is generally based on the book & claim concept.

The following activities are the responsibility of the registry users

• Sales contract between seller and buyer for biomethane certificates.
• Financial settlement between seller and buyer.
• To prove mass balancing, corresponding mass balancing confirmations have to be submitted by the exporters to the registry administrator.
• Auditing of biomethane quantities.
• etc.

The connected registries are:

• Austria: AGCS Biomethane Registry Austria
• Germany: dena Biogasregister Deutschland
• Denmark: Energinet
• Netherlands: VertiCer
• Great Britain: GGCS Green Gas Certification Scheme by REA
• Slovakia: SPPD Registry of renewable gases

Read more on the ERGaR Certificate of Origin Scheme.

Read more on the European association ERGaR aisbl, European Renewable Gas Registry.

Read more on the transactions, statistics, facts and figures of the ERGaR CoO Scheme:

• https://www.ergar.org/ergar-schemes/coo-scheme-statistics/
• Statistics AGCS Biomethan Register Austria

You can find descriptions on the business processes for the using the following links:

• Criteria Catalogue
• Guidelines on Business Processes
• Guidelines international transfers via ERGaR

The following figure illustrates the underlying business processes.