Singapore’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry announced the release of an updated Singapore Standard 673 (SS 673), its standard for companies using RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) to demonstrate their use of renewable electricity for sustainability reporting, with tighter rules requiring Scope 2 claims from RECs to be tied to clean energy supplied directly to the Singapore power grid.
Announcing the update at the Asia Clean Energy Summit, Minister of State for Energy, Trade and Industry Gan Siow Huang said that the revised standard “will strengthen trust in corporate sustainability reporting and reduce the risk and issues of greenwashing concerns that we have heard.”
Renewable energy certificates are instruments that represent the environmental and non-power attributes of 1MWh of renewable energy delivered to the electricity grid, which can be used by companies for their Scope 2 (purchased energy) emissions claims.
Singapore launched its SS 673 standard in 2021, to provide a framework to improve the integrity of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) requirements for the issuance and management of RECs, setting out good practices for REC transactions and claims.
The update to the standard specifies the types of RECs that can support claims of renewable electricity consumption in Singapore, requiring companies making claims of renewable electricity usage to use RECs linked to renewable electricity supplied directly to Singapore’s power grid. The government clarified that RECs covered under the standard include those from renewable electricity generated in Singapore, as well as those from approved from low-carbon electricity import projects contractually supplied via a physical interconnection to the Singapore power grid, adding that RECs from renewable energy projects that do not supply electricity into Singapore may not be used to make market-based Scope 2 claims.
According to Gan, the update will align the standard with international practice, and responds to businesses’ requests for greater clarity on what RECs represent, and the claims that they can support.
Gan added:
“Businesses will have greater confidence in the renewable electricity claims that they make, and also may be willing to pay more for imported electricity with credible RECs. This, we think, could in turn improve the commercial viability of import projects.”
