SP Group launches 'green credits' for consumers to offset emissions

SINGAPORE'S national utility SP Group has rolled out renewable energy certificates (RECs) for household owners to "green" their monthly electricity consumption.

The RECs are accessible under the My Green Credits feature on the SP Utilities mobile app, said SP Group in a press statement on Thursday.

Anyone with a utilities account in Singapore can now purchase the RECs, or "green credits", which deem the buyers to be consuming renewable energy. The households will then be able to match their electricity consumption with an equivalent amount of green energy produced by renewable energy projects both locally and overseas.

On the app, they can choose which renewable energy projects they wish to support, and decide how green they want to be by selecting the percentage of their monthly electricity consumption - up to 100 per cent - to match with the credits. This will be based on the user's previous utilities bill consumptions, the app stated.

The purchase will generate an REC indicating the estimated amount of carbon dioxide emissions the buyer has avoided.

So far, the app lists two projects that electricity consumers can choose from, based on The Business Times' checks on Thursday afternoon.

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One is the rooftop solar energy facility at Jurong Island by Belgian firm Katoen Natie. This project is one of the biggest grid-connected solar-on-rooftop systems in Singapore.

The other project available under My Green Credits is the Krong Pa solar farm in Vietnam, developed by Gia Lai Electricity Company. The farm brings clean energy to the local community in a less developed part of the country, and also provides infrastructure development such as water piping and roads to and within villages, according to the app.

SP Group itself is covering 100 per cent of the electricity consumption at its headquarters at 2 Kallang Sector with RECs.

The company's management and staff are also "greening" their own electricity use with the feature, it said in the statement.

The new scheme aims to make it "affordable and convenient" to purchase the credits and contribute to a low-carbon, smart-energy Singapore, according to SP Group.

Its group chief executive Stanley Huang noted that many in Singapore are keen to make green practices a part of their everyday lives, but may be deterred by relatively high costs and the lack of easy access to green sources on a sustained basis.

SP Group also said it was the first authorised local issuer of International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs) in the Asia-Pacific. The I-RECs have independent accreditation by the International REC Standard Foundation.

In October 2019, SP Group launched tradable I-RECs on its digital marketplace for companies. This allows businesses that are unable to invest in their own solar panels or other renewable sources to buy the certificates to offset their carbon emissions.