New Zealand’s general electricity network can’t tell you where your energy has come from. Our established certification system changes that.
Our system enables you to do this through the credible transfer of renewable attributes.
Impactful procurement of electricity
By purchasing New Zealand Energy Certificates (NZ-ECs), you can claim a portion of the renewable energy that has been fed into the electricity grid.
NZ-ECs are digital certificates that carry ‘attributes’ of generated electricity – such as what fuel is used, where the generation site is, and how many carbon emissions are generated to produce it.
These ‘attributes’ can then be redeemed against a consumer’s electricity usage, so that the consumer can report on their usage as if it was sourced directly from that generation site.
Key aspects of operation
1 / National grid
All electricity (renewable or otherwise) is fed into the national grid. Via the thousands of kilometres of transmission and distribution lines, this electricity is supplied to the nation’s electricity consumers.
2 / Traceability
Once electricity enters the national grid, all the electrons mix. Without BraveTrace, this means that no consumer can know for certain where the electricity they use has come from.
3 / Certificate
BraveTrace enables generators of electricity to issue a ‘certificate’ for every unit of power they produce. This certificate shows how and when the energy was generated, and from where. This information is referred to as a ‘generation attribute’.
4 / Transfer
BraveTrace certificates can be traded and transferred from electricity generators to electricity retailers or brokers, who can ultimately sell these certificates to energy consumers. Through the purchase of a certificate, a consumer owns the renewable attributes of that unit of generation.
5 / Consumer choice
By purchasing generation certificates from renewable energy facilities, and matching them to their consumption via a process called ‘redemption’, a consumer can make clear statements about the type of electricity that they support.
6 / Reliable process
By tracking all of these statements, we can make sure that each unit of energy is only counted once, and that no one is making false claims.
7 / Transparency
Finally, by tracking the flow of certificates, we can accurately calculate the characteristics of the remaining supply to ensure that everyone gets a clear picture of the nature of the energy that they are purchasing.
As more and more consumers purchase certified energy, the ‘residual supply’ becomes less and less renewable, encouraging further behavioural change.
The New Zealand Energy Certificate System (NZECS)
