AIB Grid-Connected is a market-driven descriptor for certain Guarantees of Origin that meet the following criteria: Firstly, they're EECS-GOs, which is where the "AIB" prefix is earned - adhering to the EECS Rules overseen by the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB). Secondly, they are readily transactable between two countries with a physical interconnection in the European grid, hence "Grid-Connected". As all AIB certificates can be transferred across borders between AIB member countries, grid-connected is frequently used as a modifier (and potentially coined) by traders and corporates to immediately anchor a conversation about certificates back to a geographic reality. An example use case would be a GO issued in Norway that was later cancelled by a buyer in Germany - with neither counterparty having to deal with any other technical infrastructure besides their own national registry or a Soldera account. Contrastingly, an Icelandic-issue EECS GO, whilst AIB-Hub transferable, would not be considered grid connected due to a lack of physical connection infrastructure with any European mainland country.
AIB-Hub Connected refers to national registries that follow the European Energy Certificate System (EECS) standards and are connected via the AIB Hub - registries with this status can transfer Guarantees of Origin (GOs) electronically through the hub. In practice, that means buyers can procure and cancel Energy Attribute Certificates across borders without logging into each country's registry separately.
For companies doing market-based reporting for Scope 2 under the GHG Protocol, AIB-Hub connectivity is what confirms a certificate is legitimate within AIB Market Boundaries and hasn't been counted twice. Compliance teams rely on this status for verified documentation backing their renewable energy claims.
One thing to watch: Icelandic GOs carry AIB-Hub Connected status, but Iceland has no physical grid link to mainland Europe. Some corporate buyers and auditors treat that differently. The related adjective AIB Grid-Connected adds a market-driven physical interconnection requirement on top of the EECS registry standards, and that distinction matters when sourcing for stricter procurement policies. Each country runs its own registry with its own procedures. Certain platforms like Soldera handle cross-border GO transactions through a single interface via integrations, so you don't need accounts for multiple national systems yourself.
BREEAM In-Use is an assessment scheme for rating the environmental performance of existing buildings. It covers energy, water, waste, and other categories. Buildings score higher on energy when they can prove their electricity comes from renewable sources, and the way you prove that is with Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs). In the UK these are REGOs, in Europe they're Guarantees of Origin, and in other markets they're called I-RECs. Buy the right certificates, retire them against your consumption, and your building's BREEAM In-Use energy score goes up.
The balancing market is a real-time system run by Transmission System Operators (TSOs) to match electricity supply with demand, typically in 15-minute settlement windows under ENTSO-E rules. It exists to keep the grid physically stable, and nothing more.
Don't get mixed up - the Energy Attribute Certificate market is a completely different thing. The two worlds occasionally get confused, but they solve different problems: balancing markets keep supply and demand matched in real time on the grid, while certificates are an accounting layer that lets sustainability teams prove where their electricity came from.
ENTSO-E defines a Bidding Zone as the largest geographical area where market participants can trade electricity without needing capacity allocation. The CACM Regulation introduced this concept to manage structural congestion across European electricity markets. Relevance to EACs is multifaceted: If you work in sustainability, bidding zones are worth understanding because they are a frequent presence in discourse around higher-precision boundaries for market-based Scope 2 instruments, specifically Guarantees of Origin (GOs) in Europe. The key idea within certain schemes, such as RE100, is to prioritise regulatory alignment and physical interconnectivity between regions - precise geographic matching via bidding zones is a highly adjacent topic to this discussion. When GO procurement aligns with the bidding zone where the electricity is actually bought and delivered, reporting a strong and credible claim via locally matched GOs easier. Tracking all of this happens across separate national registries, one per country, which gets messy quickly when you're operating across borders. Soldera pulls these into a single platform so you're not logging into five different registries to manage certificates.
Bundled procurement means delivering electricity and EACs through unified transactions, as opposed to separate or independent transfers of unbundled EACs. The mechanism often describes a scenario whereby a producer sells power and certificates simultaneously to the same buyer through unified commercial mechanisms, such as PPAs. However, "bundled" does not strictly require that EACs originate from the exact same generator as sold energy, nor that they must correlate with the generation period of the electricity delivered. Rather, it only matters that energy and EACs are part of the same contract.
Executed through registry interfaces or Soldera virtual accounts, cancellation (also known as retirement or redemption) is one of two ways an EACs lifecycle comes to an end, the other being expiration. Once cancelled, EACs are removed from circulation as they become ineligible for transfer or future use. This mechanism exists to prevent the double counting of renewable energy: multiple parties cannot claim attributes from identical certificates, because all registry protocols block duplicate retirements. Cancelling an EAC grants the user a cancellation certificate, which are essential to keep for complete audit trails and market-based Scope 2 disclosure.
Cancellation statements must be compiled into evidence packages to support claims: typically for emissions disclosures and for schemes that require proof of renewable consumption. They are accessible for download after EACs have been cancelled within a registry or Virtual Account. They contain beneficiary identification, and, similarly to EACs, relevant device metadata in full. To use the example of European GOs: statements reference unique certificate numbers, specific generation volumes, the domain of cancellation, facility names, the issuance date, production periods, technology classifications, and whether or not the device was in receipt of public support (whether investment support or production support).
Carbon Reduction Plans (CRPs) are documents required under UK Procurement Policy Note 06/21 for any organisation bidding on major public contracts. Each CRP has to state the organisation's current carbon footprint and commit to reaching Net Zero by 2050, covering Scopes 1, 2, and 3. Scope 2, which covers purchased electricity, is where EACs come in. In the UK these are REGOs (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin). Buy enough REGOs and you can report zero emissions for your electricity use under the market-based method. That clears the CRP's reduction targets and ticks the procurement box for green energy sourcing.
Claims are the public assertion of a type of energy usage, and must be backed by legitimate cancellation statements from tracking system registries. Claims are both a discussion of legality and credibility: In the EU, supplier-to-customer renewable claims are legally connected to Guarantees of Origin that are provably cancelled in official registries to prevent double counting (also the case for REGOs redeemed in the UK). In the US, the FTC's Green Guides are explicit: claims about renewable energy usage are considered unqualified if energy derived from non-renewable sources is used but corresponding RECs are not procured to match the energy usage (or "virtually all" the energy usage in the case of manufacturing processes). Credibility of claims is a different discussion topic, relating not to the legal messaging rights of an EAC redeemer post-cancellation, but to the quality criteria and guidelines that organisations should attempt to follow when procuring EACs. The credible claims document published by RE100 is a well-established example of this theme.
The Day-ahead market is a wholesale electricity auction. Participants buy and sell energy for delivery the next calendar day. In Europe, CACM regulations and the EUPHEMIA algorithm (run by NEMOs) set hourly clearing prices across bidding zones by 12:00 CET.
The physical energy trade happens on this market, but the environmental attributes don't come with it. It's a seperate market altogether. Those are tracked separately through Energy Attribute Certificates. A company doing Scope 2 reporting would buy Guarantees of Origin (GOs) independently to cover their actual consumption. To claim that energy as renewable, the GOs then get cancelled through national registries or through Soldera Virtual Accounts.
Demand response (DR) is a grid flexibility mechanism where end-users adjust their electricity consumption based on automated triggers or price signals. Regulations like FERC Order 2222 in the US and EU Directive 2019/944 govern how DR programmes operate. Unlike Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) that represent renewable generation, but DR is about load curtailment, you're reducing what you actually consume rather than certifying how it was produced. DR brings down your gross consumption, while EACs zero out emissions on whatever load remains under frameworks like the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. They address different sides of the same problem.
Dual reporting under the GHG Protocol currently mandates two calculations and figures. Organisations calculate Scope 2 emissions twice using distinct methodologies: location-based figures that apply grid average factors from regional authorities, and market-based figures that incorporate the factors of residual mix data and contractual instruments, the latter of which only recognised as valid if meeting the quality criteria established by the GHG protocol or, where deviating, the criteria of a local disclosure regime.
Every megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity has energy attributes. Consider these as the factual descriptors tied to a specific 1 megawatt-hour (MWh), and include generation technology, plant location, support status, facility start date, and the production period of the generation. The desirability of energy with renewable generation technology attributes is the easiest to understand, but all attributes serve a purpose, usually relating to supporting the credibility of a renewable claim.
Energy Attribute Certificate (EACs) act as the formal instrument recording those attributes per 1MWh.
The phrase "Energy Attribute Certificates" (EACs) is an umbrella term that refers to every type of tradeable certificate carrying energy attributes, with the majority of demand existing for the "renewable" attribute (meaning, tracking energy from a renewable source). Functionally, EACs underpin book and claim traceability mechanisms by serving as tradeable assets: EAC creation (known as issuance) "books" the finite number of attributes that correspond with verified renewable energy production, whilst "claims" (via EAC cancellation) represent end-of-life for an EAC, as the attribute is used permanently. The existence of market demand for EACs classes them as environmental commodities.
EAC types primarily include Guarantees of Origin (GOs), Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs), International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs), and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
