Renewable Energy Procurement Part 2
This guidance from UKGBC on Renewable Energy Procurement seeks to empower stakeholders tasked with procuring energy in the built environment to do so in a way that enables them to realise their climate ambition, while supporting the continued decarbonisation of the electricity supply sector.
Fully decarbonising the electricity system by 2035 is central to delivering Net Zero in the UK. With buildings responsible for over 60% of the UK’s national electricity demand, the built environment industry has a critical role to play in achieving this target, and the way electricity is procured for our buildings can accelerate our transition to a reliable, resilient, and zero carbon grid.
This guidance from UKGBC on Renewable Energy Procurement seeks to empower stakeholders tasked with procuring energy in the built environment to do so in a way that enables them to realise their climate ambition, while supporting the continued decarbonisation of the electricity supply sector. Across a suite of guidance documents, UKGBC’s series of reports gives industry the tools to make more informed procurement decisions.
Key aspects within the guidance include:
Three principles for good quality renewable electricity procurement –
Renewable, Additionality and Time-matched – along with actions to meet these principles. The best electricity procurement approaches will seek to maximise the extent to which they respond to these three principles.
A toolkit to better engage with your energy supplier
and source the information needed to compare the procurement routes available to you in the market.
A rating system for assessing the performance of a building
or organisation’s overall electricity strategy, including electricity procured from off site, as well as any onsite generation, demand management, and storage.
A summary of procurement routes available in the market,
with more detailed information on many of the Power Purchase Agreement variants, as well as some of the factors that may affect an organisation’s ability to engage with certain procurement options.
All Reports
Summary Report
The summary report brings together the key conclusions, guidance, and recommendations from the other reports. It gives an overview of the information to help users identify which documents will be most useful and relevant for them.
Report 1 – What stakeholders need to do
Report 1 outlines what stakeholders need to do, providing both general recommendations to secure procurement that aligns with the principles for quality renewable electricity procurement. It also identifies actions different consumer types can take today and in future to help support the market evolution needed to enable the electricity system’s decarbonisation.
Report 2 – Options available in market
There are many routes through which built environment stakeholders can procure their electricity. The accessibility of these routes to different consumers varies substantially, and each contributes differently to decarbonising the grid. Report 2 summarises the various procurement routes available in the market and the factors that may affect a built environment stakeholder’s ability to engage in them. It also describes the range of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) variants available and introduces relevant guidance when considering a direct contract with a renewable generator.
Report 3 – Determining the performance of your electricity strategy
Report 3 introduces tools for engaging energy suppliers to enable better assessment of the options available in the market. It also defines a methodology for scoring the performance of a building’s electricity strategy, including procurement as well as onsite generation and demand management. This enables all stakeholders to benchmark their current strategy, assess prospective strategies, and understand the incremental changes they can make to secure procurement and manage their buildings in a way that accelerates our transition to a resilient, decarbonised electricity system.
Report 4 – Rationale behind the guidance
Report 4 outlines why decarbonising the electricity system is critical in delivering against our national Net Zero target, and explores the challenges in doing so as we move to electrify heat and transport and transition from fossil fuels to intermittent renewable power. It summarises the energy markets, the principles of good quality procurement that can help drive this transition, and the evolution in approaches to energy management and the energy products being offered that are required to enable a resilient, decarbonised electricity grid. It describes the sources of emissions that result from the consumption of electricity and covers approaches to account for these emissions.
Advancing Net Zero Partners
Our climate change mitigation work is made possible thanks to the generous support of our Advancing Net Zero Programme Partners
Project partners
With thanks to our Embodied Carbon Project Partners who make this work possible.
Related
Carbon Offsetting and Pricing Guidance
Guide to support the significant efforts needed to achieve our net zero ambitions, based on established industry thinking and discussions with built environment professionals.
Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment
UKGBC have launched the Whole Life Carbon Roadmap, a common vision and agreed actions for achieving net zero carbon in the construction, operation and demolition of buildings and infrastructure.
Renewable Energy Procurement & Carbon Offsetting Guidance for Net Zero Carbon Buildings
Guidance on the procurement of high-quality renewable energy and carbon offsets for net zero buildings in the UK
Net Zero Carbon Buildings Framework
This page provides the latest information on UKGBC's net zero carbon buildings framework, which is a series of guidance documents. This page should be referred to first, in case information has been superseded from previously published guidance.
