GreenPower improvements coming in 2024 and 2025

These improvements aim to maintain GreenPower's alignment with a range of climate change, sustainability and renewable energy standards and frameworks that are valued by GreenPower customers, including: Climate Active, NABERS, RE100 and B Corp.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our Program Review consultation, and provided feedback during further targeted consultation with GreenPower customers, providers and generators earlier this year. This feedback has been invaluable as we have been refining and finalising these improvements.

Four improvements will come into effect on 1 January 2024:

1. GreenPower’s generator accreditation dates will change so they align with the Clean Energy Regulator's accreditation date for renewable electricity generators, with some exceptions. 
2. GreenPower will introduce a 15-year generator age limit so that generators receive GreenPower incentives for no longer than 15 years.
3. GreenPower will introduce a 27-month certificate vintage requirement on Large-scale Generation Certificates applicable to all GreenPower sales from 1 January 2024. 
4. GreenPower Providers will be required to provide postcode-level reporting of GreenPower purchases on a quarterly basis from 2024 onwards. 

We are aiming to recognise the Renewable Power Percentage in GreenPower Products in 2025.

What are the upcoming changes? 

1. Generator accreditation dates

GreenPower’s generator accreditation dates will change so they align with the Clean Energy Regulator's accreditation date for renewable electricity generators, with some exceptions. This alignment in accreditation dates will remove some administrative burden and make it easier for GreenPower customers and providers to buy GreenPower Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs).

GreenPower's generator accreditation date will differ from the Clean Energy Regulator's date for:

• re-powered (substantially upgraded) generators, and
• co-located additions of new fuel sources to existing generators, e.g., a solar farm being added to an existing wind farm. 

2. Introducing an age limit for renewable generators participating in GreenPower

GreenPower will introduce a 15-year generator age limit so that generators receive GreenPower incentives for no longer than 15 years. The generator age limit will help facilitate the installation of new renewable energy generators and maintain GreenPower’s alignment with renewable and climate frameworks such as RE100 and BCorp’s draft climate action standard that are valued by GreenPower customers. 

The age limit will be applied based on the accreditation date, as outlined above, and be in addition to the current exclusion of pre-1997, 'below-baseline' generation capacity. There will be limited exemptions to the age limit, mainly for pre-existing contracts and power purchase agreements.

3. Bringing renewable generation and customer energy use closer together 

GreenPower will introduce a 27-month certificate vintage requirement on Large-scale Generation Certificates applicable to all GreenPower sales from 1 January 2024. This certificate vintage requirement will help ensure renewable electricity is generated close to the period in which the electricity was consumed and help maintain GreenPower's alignment with climate change and sustainability frameworks such as Climate Active and NABERS.

4. More granular and automated reporting of GreenPower uptake 

GreenPower Providers will be required to provide postcode-level reporting of GreenPower purchases on a quarterly basis from 2024 onwards. This will enable more targeted marketing and evaluation of campaigns by GreenPower and its local council promotional partners, and help these councils to reduce community emissions in their local government area more cost effectively. Postcode-level data will be anonymised and aggregated from all Providers before it is published.

Updated program rules relating to these four improvements are expected to be published in September 2023.

We are aiming to recognise the Renewable Power Percentage in GreenPower Products in 2025

GreenPower Products are currently fully additional to the Australian Government’s mandatory Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). As many sustainability certifications move towards market-based carbon accounting, we plan to include the LRET in GreenPower electricity product percentages from 1 January 2025.

After this change, GreenPower Product percentages will include the mandatory Renewable Power Percentage (RPP), except for customers that are exempt from the Renewable Energy Target.

This improvement will reduce costs, make it easier to understand how much renewable electricity customers are getting, and reflect recent changes to other sustainability and carbon accounting frameworks such as NABERS and Climate Active.

With the RPP being included in GreenPower Product percentages, and likely remaining around 19%, it would no longer make sense for 10% GreenPower products to be available. We expect to increase the minimum percentage in GreenPower retail products from 1 January 2025 and will consult further on this change over the coming months. 

Updated program rules relating to the recognition of the RPP and the change to the minimum product percentage are expected to be published in early 2024.

You can read more about GreenPower's 2022 Program Review and submissions to it here.