E-Track
A European Tracking-System for Electricity
The E-TRACK project has investigated the feasibility of a
harmonised standard for tracking electricity in Europe. The aim was to outline
a comprehensive approach for all tracking requirements which are imposed
by European and national legislation. The project is completed.
Background
Changes within the European electricity market and environmental policy
have brought into focus the need to allocate generation attributes to
participants. EC Directives 2001/77/EC and 2004/8/EC contain regulations
on Guarantees of Origin (GoO), which allow generators to demonstrate that
the electricity they sell is produced from renewable energy sources or high efficiency cogeneration. In addition
Directive 2003/54/EC requires the Member States to introduce fuel mix
disclosure schemes for electricity sold to final consumers.
A system which tracks generation attributes may also be of value in supporting the growing market for “Green Power”
in Europe and assisting Member States to allocate funding for electricity
produced from renewable energy sources and high efficiency cogeneration,
via feed-in tariffs, quota obligations, tax exemptions etc. Harmonisation of such “tracking” schemes
across Europe would support the development of the internal market.
The E-Track Project
In the E-TRACK project, part-sponsored by the European Commission, a
comprehensive approach was developed which allows electricity attributes
to be easily accounted for. The approach helps to avoid the problems with
multiple counting of attributes and it enables verification of tracking
procedures to be
simplified.
The project ran from Jan 2005 to June 2007 and the team comprised organizations
from 11 European countries, including Switzerland. Project coordination
was with the German Institute
for Applied Ecology.
All results and reports can be downloaded from the international Project-website
Final Report E-Track (1130 kB, pdf)
E-Track II
Recently, a follow-up project has been started that has the aim to further the application of the E-Track Standard in Europe. A particular focus of E-Track II will be on guarantees of origin for co-generation and the particular needs of consumers with regard to electricity tracking.