An eventual EU recognition of the Energy Community’s guarantees of origin (GOs), excluding Serbia, would increase the GO market size by 60 TWh, from the current 750-800 TWh, said a senior originator at Norwegian Statkraft.

The European market would be able to absorb the gradual increase in volumes without lowering the GO prices, said Sebastian Schraven from the Norwegian energy company at the Energy Community conference on advancing renewables in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Thursday.

Price discount

He explained that the GO prices in the Energy Community contracting parties will remain lower than in the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB), until the European Commission (EC) makes the political decision to accept them.

“As long as we do not have an agreement in place, there will be discounts to the Energy Community GOs,” said Schraven, adding that despite a healthy appetite for the Serbian GOs, this instrument has been trading “with a great discount”.

Serbia is an AIB member, but article 19(11) of the EU renewable energy directive RED2 restricts the export of its GOs to EU member states.

New energy supply models

Schraven believes that there could be a further boost to GOs in the Energy Community countries once they enable new energy supply models.

GOs also play an important role in renewables investment decisions, said Schraven, adding that certificates can be another “way forward to move away from the government support schemes”.