Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator

Increasing Australia's renewable electricity generation

Voluntary Surrender

What is voluntary surrender?

Voluntary surrender allows any registered account in the REC Registry to offer RECs under section 28A of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (the Act).  By offering RECs for voluntary surrender the registered account permanently removes the RECs from the REC market.

Voluntary surrender is not connected to the mandatory surrender processes where liable parties, typically electricity retailers, are required to surrender RECs annually to meet the renewable energy targets legislated under section 40 of the Act.  For more information visit the mandatory surrender details on the Wholesale Acquisitions of Electricity page.

Why users of registered accounts offer RECs for voluntary surrender

Users of registered accounts may choose to offer RECs for voluntary surrender for a variety of reasons including: 

  1. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the purchase and surrender of renewable energy certificates (RECs) from renewable sources, encouraging development of renewable sourced electricity.  
  2. To meet GreenPower obligations.  For more information visit GreenPower.
  3. To invalidate equivalent number of RECs after an improper creation of RECs occurs thereby forgoing   benefits from an improper REC creation.  All improper creation of RECs can incur penalties and possible prosecution and are reported as a fraudulent activity.
  4. To increase the demand of RECs beyond the mandatory target.  This stimulates and encourages additional RECs through the introduction of additional generation of electricity from renewable energy sources into the renewable energy target (RET).

How to create an account for voluntary surrender

To maintain the integrity of the RET and data held within the REC Registry, ORER encourages participants of the RET to follow the processes outlined below.  This ensures that the business practices of companies acting on behalf of individuals and individual companies in terms of voluntary surrender are in accordance with the guidelines of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, other Government agencies.

Option 1: For individuals or iindividual companies making voluntary surrender offers.

If you are an individual or individual company looking to make your own voluntary surrender offer(s) you will need to apply for a registered account in the REC Registry.  This allows you to buy, sell and voluntarily surrender RECs.  If you wish to create RECs see Options for becoming a Registered Person.

Option 2: A company making voluntary surrender offer(s) on behalf of individuals or individual companies

If you are making voluntary surrender offer(s) directly on behalf of others and will need to:

  1. Apply for a registered account in the REC Registry.  This allows you to buy, sell and voluntarily surrender RECs.  If you wish to create RECs see Options for becoming a Registered Person.
  2. Apply for a registered account in the REC Registry for the the individuals or individual companies.  This means you will need to create accounts for each individual and individual company you make voluntary surrender offers for.  You can make several offers for the same registered account once the initial account is created. 
  3. The account name must follow the below format or ORER will not accept the offer: your company(i.e. Neutron) – the name of the individual or individual company (i.e. John Douglas) – Voluntary Surrender (or VS)

Option 3: A company making voluntary surrender offers on behalf of customers that made the voluntary surrender request through another individual company

If you are making voluntary surrender offers on behalf of customers that made the voluntary surrender request through another individual company, you will need to:

  1. Apply for a registered account in the REC Registry.  This allows you to buy, sell, and voluntarily surrender RECs.  If you wish to create RECs see Options for becoming a Registered Person.
  2. Apply for a registered account in the REC Registry for the individuals or individual companies.  This means you will need to create accounts for each individual and individual company you make voluntary surrender offers for.  You can make several offers for the same registered account once the initial account is created. 
  3. The account name must follow the below format or the ORER will not accept the offer: your company(ie Neutron) – the name of the individual company (ie Atom) – On behalf of (insert client or company name (ie Fred Douglas) - Voluntary Surrender (or VS)

Option 4: A company making voluntary surrender offer(s) to meet GreenPower obligations

If you are an individual company making voluntary surrender offers to meet GreenPower obligations you will need to apply for a registered account in the REC Registry.  This allows you to buy, sell and voluntarily surrender RECs. If you wish to create RECs see Options for becoming a Registered Person.

The account name must follow the below format in order to meet GreenPower and ORER requirements:

  1. the company’s name – GreenPower Account
  2. Companies should note that voluntary offers will not be accepted unless the account name follows the above format.

Options for becoming a Registered Person

The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (the Act) allows individuals and companies a number of ways to register and participant in the RET.  There are two registration options.

Option 1: Public user of a registered account

An individual or company can be a public user of the REC Registry.  As a public user you are only able to:

  1. own and transfer registered RECs; or
  2. make voluntary or mandatory REC surrender offers.
  3. To apply for a registered account – Individuals or companies must create an account in the REC Registry and ‘Apply for an Account’.  

Option 2: User of a Registered Person account

An individual or company can be a user of a registered person account.  As a registered person users are able to:

  1. Create RECs for eligible solar water heater installation or small generation unit installation (this includes small photovoltaic/solar systems, mini wind turbines and mini hydro electric systems).
  2. Apply for registration as an agent. If successfully registered, an agent can create RECs on behalf of owners of deemed unit installations who assign their right to create RECs to the agent.
  3. Seek accreditation of a power station for which they are a nominated person, by applying to the Regulator. If the power station is accredited by the Regulator, then RECs can be created for eligible electricity generation above the renewable energy power station’s baseline.

To apply to become a registered person – Lodge a Registered Person Application with ORER and pay application fee. Once your application has been approved by ORER go to the REC Registry and 'Apply for an Account'. When registration is successfully completed, a registered person is able to create RECs.

How to make voluntary surrender offers

For all non-Greenpower voluntary surrender offers

After you have applied for a registered account you will need to:

  1. Buy RECs from any REC Registry account.  This means that you will need to contact another registered account and have them transfer the amount of RECs to your REC Registry account.
  2. Accept the transfer made by your seller of RECs.
  3. Make voluntary surrender offer(s) through the Voluntary Surrender functionality of the REC Registry. 

For GreenPower voluntary surrender offers

After you have applied for a registered account you will need to:

  1. Buy RECs from the correct renewable energy source (TYPE) according to the GreenPower Accreditation Program Rules. This means that you will need to contact another registered account and have them transfer the amount and renewable energy source type of RECs to your REC Registry account.
  2. Accept the transfer made by your seller of RECs.
  3. Make voluntary surrender offer(s) through the Voluntary Surrender functionality in the REC Registry. 

Users of registered accounts making voluntary surrender offers to meet GreenPower obligations should note that:

Confirming voluntary surrender offers

When offering RECs for voluntary surrender the REC Registry requests confirmation of your offer several times before the offer is made.  This is to give you every opportunity to discontinue your offer, particularly if you chose the incorrect renewable energy source type and amount of RECs.

For your first offer the Liability Assessment Team will confirm, via email, that:

ORER accepting voluntary surrender offer(s)

ORER aims to accept voluntary surrender offers within 4 weeks of the offer and after permission from the Renewable Energy Regulator.  This is dependent on:

RECs that are accepted for voluntary surrender:

Cancelling voluntary surrender offer(s)

Voluntary surrender offers can be cancelled up to the point that ORER accepts them.

Once RECs are accepted by ORER they are permanently removed from the REC market.

You can cancel the offer made by accessing the relevant area of your REC Registry account.  Once cancelled the RECs are returned to the account as registered RECs that can be used for future transactions.

Record keeping

ORER requires participants of the RET to keep all relevant records and any supporting information relating to actions of the Act for a period of 5 years.  The Renewable Energy Regulator can request any information under section 125A of the Act.

The Act allows ORER to conduct audits of any person who carries out actions of the Act at any time with consent of the company.  Should the company be selected for audit, you will be notified in due course.  Should the company not consent a monitoring warrant can be obtained.

Failure to meet any sections of the Act may result in suspension of registration or criminal proceedings and the payment of penalties.

REC Registry assistance

If you are unsure about how to use particular functions of the REC Registry or have any technical issues you can:

 

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