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PJM Interconnection to Produce Energy Certificates Hourly

PJM Interconnection to Produce Energy Certificates Hourly

February 27, 2023

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 27, 2023

PJM Environmental Information Services, Inc. will provide hourly, time-stamped certificates for PJM generation starting in March 2023, “answering the growing demand for procuring and tracking carbon-free energy around the clock,” PJM Interconnection said.

PJM Environmental Information Services, a subsidiary of PJM Interconnection, manages the Generation Attribute Tracking System (GATS).

GATS is a trading platform designed to meet the needs of buyers and sellers involved in the carbon-free energy market, from homeowners and aggregators to state and federal agencies and other market participants seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.

For both the electric utilities and generation suppliers, GATS helps meet state and federal environmental requirements associated with electric operations, such as renewable portfolio standard compliance and emissions disclosure.

Each certificate represents one megawatt-hour of electricity produced and includes generator location, emissions output, fuel source and date the generator went online.

Currently, GATS produces certificates based on how much energy a resource produces in a month. Now GATS becomes the first registry in the U.S. to produce hourly, time-stamped certificates to reflect not only where, but the hour and date when energy is produced.

“Advocates of the 24/7 clean-energy approach maintain that that hourly certificates can help electricity consumers, including large government and business customers, tailor their energy consumption to the availability of carbon-free energy at all hours of the day,” PJM said. “Such demand expressed through the market could also incentivize new carbon-free generation resources to serve the hours of the day when renewable energy production is currently lacking.”