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Our Services / Guarantees of origin

Guarantees of origin (GO)

Gasgrid Finland is the registrar of the register of guarantees of origin for gas and hydrogen.

Gas and hydrogen GOs are used to ensure that gas and hydrogen are produced from renewable energy sources. The GO refers to an electronic document which serves as evidence to the end user that a certain proportion or quantity of energy has been produced using renewable sources.

GOs are issued for gases and hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources in Finland. GOs are not required if the energy is not sold or marketed as renewable. In uncertain situations, the need for GO should be verified from the Energy Authority go@energiavirasto.fi.

Obligation to verify the origin of gas and hydrogen with a guarantee of origin has started on 1 July 2022.

According to Energy Authority regulations the obligation to certify the origin of gas and hydrogen informed as having been produced from renewable energy sources must be met by cancelling GOs allocated to the previous calendar year with the registrar by 31 March the following year.

Terms and fees

The terms of the Domain Protocol define the procedures, rights and obligations in force in Finland in relation to gas and hydrogen GO.

The GO system charges consist of fixed charges and use-based charges. Use-based charges are invoiced four times a year in arrears, by quarter: In April, July, October and January, always the previous three (3) months at a time. The fixed charges are invoiced in April. The fixed charges for recently registered users are invoiced with the following quarterly invoice. The service fees as of 1 January 2024 have been published on November 28, 2023.

Joining the GO register

The GO system is open to producers of gas and hydrogen from renewable energy sources, gas users and market participants, regardless of whether the gas is fed into the transmission or distribution network or produced or used outside the natural gas network (so-called offgrid production).

The register of GO is joined by registration as an account holder. The account holder may make the necessary cancellations, internal register transfers and foreign transfers (in the initial phase with the Issuing Body manually) in the register of GO.

The application for account holder is made by filling in and signing a service contract with Gasgrid Finland. The contract will be signed by using a digital signature and if digital signing is not possible, the conventional way of signing the contract on paper can be used.

The contract with the appendixes (a contact information form, an extract from the Trade Register or an equivalent official document and the names of persons authorized to sign and represent the Company) is sent to Gasgrid Finland customerservice@gasgrid.fi. Gasgrid Finland evaluates and accepts the information and start a digital signature process. In a case of paper signature process the contracting party sends two signed copies of the contract to Gasgrid Finland Oy, Keilaranta 19 D, FI-02150 Espoo. Gasgrid Finland signs the contract and returns one copy to the contracting party.

After the service contract has been signed, Gasgrid Finland creates signing-in credentials for G-REX for the account holders’ administrator, who can add users to the register from their own organisations.

Owners of production devices or their duly authorised registrants may as account holder register a production device in the register.

A production device may be registered only if it meets the criteria for the approval of the GO system. For a production device to be approved for GO register, it must be located in Finland (except for Åland), it must be capable of producing renewable gas or hydrogen and verified. Verification instructions and the approved assessment institutions can be found on the Energy Authority website (in Finnish and Swedish).

Conversion procedure

When converting energy from one energy carrier to another, the end product can be issued with a GO if the origin of the energy during production has been verified by cancelling GOs, or if the origin can otherwise be reliably verified. In the GO system, this process is called energy carrier’s conversion. To prevent double calculation, an amount of the energy carrier’s GOs corresponding to the used energy must be cancelled during the conversion before the amount of energy produced in the conversion process can be issued GOs for the created energy carrier.

Transfer between countries

GOs can be transferred between EU/EEA countries if the GOs to be transferred meet the legal requirements for GOs. In the initial phase, Gasgrid Finland processes transfer requests on a case-by-case basis, as there are no agreements with the registrars of GOs in different countries regarding the requirements and arrangements related to the transfer. In the case of export and import of GOs, please contact Gasgrid Finland.

At least at the initial stage, it is not possible to transfer GOs between Finland and non-EU countries.

Functions and events

See the events and their recordings and materials on our Finnish guarantees of origin site. Upon request the user trainings and the status updates can be organized in English. You can register on the distribution list of our email bulletins at customerservice@gasgrid.fi and ask for more information as well.