What we're reading

Hourly matching delivers 42x more emissions reductions than annual matching, according to research on 16 US regions

• A new paper in The Electricity Journal finds that program design matters far more than participation levels in determining the impact of CFE procurement on emissions reduction.
• CFE cost premiums range from $1 to $130/MWh depending on region and technology. The study highlights that having a wide range of technologies, including all renewables, nuclear, CCS, storage, helps reduce cost, particularly in wind and solar resource-limited regions.
• According to the paper, annual matching saves around 1 Mt CO₂/year in emissions reductions. Hourly matching with incrementality and deliverability criteria saves 42 Mt CO₂/year, assuming the same market participation.
• Assuming half the market participates in hourly matched CFE procurement, we can expect up to 149 GW of additional storage capacity needed. That is roughly 4–5x the current US grid battery capacity.
• Read the full paper.

UK government departments at odds over AI data centre energy demand

• The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has forecast that AI data centres could require at least 6 GW of electricity capacity to meet the UK's 2030 AI compute target, while the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) projects a far more modest increase. There is currently a tenfold gap in forecasts between the departments tackling the same topic from two different lenses.
• This disparity has a negative impact on forecasting, grid investment planning, carbon budget modelling, and energy procurement decisions.
• Campaigners are calling for a standard framework to calculate the environmental impact of data centres and for developers to fund new renewable generation linked to their projects.
• Read the article here.

European Commission Recommendation to enable Guarantees of Origins (GOs) to adopt more granular time-stamps

• The Commission published a Recommendation document on 22 April to facilitate PPA uptake, explicitly identifying the GO system as a blocker for storage. The current GO system aggregates generation on a monthly or annual basis, meaning there is little to no visibility into or consideration of intermittency and variation in renewable production.
• As more renewables come onto the grid we see increased cannibalisation, when peak wind and solar generation times push wholesale electricity prices down, reducing revenue and the market value of PPAs. Hybrid contracts combining wind, solar and storage are increasingly needed to smooth out this effect and keep PPAs commercially viable.
• The recommendation calls on member states to enable GOs to be time-stamped at market time unit level (e.g. 15 minutes) and issuable for storage discharge.
• A GO system that cannot account for when and how energy flows will lose relevance as storage and flexibility become central to how the grid operates.
• Read the recommendation here.

What we're writing

Granular Energy x Electric Ireland: certificate management for Guarantees of Origin

• We recently announced our partnership with Electric Ireland, one of Ireland's leading electricity suppliers, who have started using our certificate management platform for their full GO portfolio. This is a first in the Irish market.
• The partnership brings transparent reporting and a full audit trail from generation, to GO, to delivery to Irish consumers.
• Read the press release here.

Granular Energy x Xpansiv: integrated clean energy matching

• We’re pleased to have announced our partnership with Xpansiv, the leading infrastructure provider for global energy transition markets.
• Together, we unlock registry-integrated, granular energy matching for clean energy suppliers and their customers. Our combined solution allows suppliers to automatically match clean energy to consumption down to the hour, backed by registry-issued EACs, and manage customer-facing reporting.
• Read the full announcement.

Next-gen Electricity Procurement: event recap

• On 24 April, alongside CMS we co-hosted our yearly event in London bringing together energy buyers, suppliers, and market participants to discuss the future of electricity procurement.
• Three panels covered the implications of the GHG Scope 2 revision, next-gen portfolio management in a high-renewables market, and the evolving role of licence-exempt supply in the UK.
• Read the key takeaways here.

Where to meet us

• Priya Patel will be at the CalCCA conference 12-14 May, in Sacramento
• Camille Lamb and Toby Ferenczi will be at All-Energy in Glasgow on 13–14 May 2026. Come find them if you're attending.
• Marisú Mangino will be at the Volue Power Summit in Amsterdam on 20 May 2026.
• Eleonore Lazat will be at the European PPA and Corporate Sourcing conference in Amsterdam on 21 May 2026.
• We will also be speaking at the Asian Climate Action Summit and 24/7 Solutions Accelerator workshop in Singapore on 21 May 2026.
• Eleonore Lazat, Pal Habsburg-Lothingen and Camille Lamb will be at the RECS Market Meeting in Prague on 2–3 June 2026. Eleonore will be joining a debate on Wednesday at 10:30 on a panel discussing EAC matching granularities. Hope to meet you there!
• Eleonore Lazat and Sebastian Porter will be speaking at the Unicorn Energy Forum in Prague on June 4-5.
• Bruno Menu and Eleonore Lazat will be attending Forum Europ'Energies in Paris on 30 June 2026.