Google forges ahead with plans for hourly renewable electricity tracking

Source: · EDIE NEWSROOM · | March 15, 2022

Google has stated that it is working to "fully develop and widely deploy" a tool that will enable governments, businesses and energy system operators to track renewable electricity generation and consumption in real-time.

Source: Image: Google Could

The tech giant launched the tool, called ‘Time-Based Energy Attribute Certificates’ (T-EACs), last March. The aim of the tool is to improve clean energy certification; most organisations using 100% renewable electricity do not use the electricity directly, but purchase Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) to prove that a utility is generating the equivalent of clean energy as is consumed by the buyer.

REGOs – known as RECs in the US – are “an outdated approach for addressing an increasingly nuanced problem”, Google has stated. T-EACs, meanwhile, provide more granular data – often on an hour-by-hour basis.

“This information will help energy consumers better understand their energy use, while empowering governments and system operators to develop more rapid and cost-effective strategies for decarbonisation,” reads Google’s statement. It adds: “Perhaps most excitingly, it will also create price signals that stimulate new investments into technologies and projects that deliver carbon-free energy at the times when it’s most needed, accelerating decarbonisation across entire electricity grids.”

Google has today (15 March 2022) posted an update on T-EAC development, touting strong progress and the potential of “widespread adoption” in the near future.

It confirmed that trial projects are underway in the US, Denmark and Chile. In the US, Google is working with M-RETS, a non-profit specialising in energy certificates, and APX, an environmental technologies provider. These collaborations mean that electricity generators in the Central and Midwest US will soon be able to get data on an hourly basis and generate certificates just as rapidly. Similarly, this data and certificate option will be opened up to the Danish national grid operator Energinet.