We are set to see some big changes to carbon accounting in 2025, and it presents some challenges and opportunities for businesses.
ENTRNCE are here to help you navigate the shifting policy landscape, grasp the financial rewards, and avoid the risks. To find out what’s coming up, read on…
Scope 2 accounting to get time-based
Current approaches to Scope 2 accounting utilise the market-based and location-based methods, but both are blunt instruments that don’t reflect your organisation’s actual carbon emissions from your electricity usage patterns and grid conditions.
That’s why the GHG Protocol is reviewing its Scope 2 guidance – and an overhaul is on the way. We are likely to see a requirement for more regional and temporal approaches to calculating Scope 2. In other words, WHERE you sourced your electricity from, and WHEN you used it. This will include the use of accurate, hourly data to calculate energy emissions, rather than relying on annual grid emission averages, as is standard. ENTRNCE supports this change, as we estimate that the current approach is causing organisations to their emissions by as much as 40%!
Key dates: The GHG Protocol’s new draft Scope 2 reporting guidance will be released for public consultation in 2025. Final updates are anticipated by the second half of 2026.
Get prepared: ENTRNCE’s Matcher platform uses half-hourly data, enabling you to calculate your true energy emissions and prepare for this rigorous new reporting standard. Get in touch for a demo.
"100% renewable" claims face further scrutiny
REGOs allow organisations to claim they are on a “100% renewable” supply, simply by purchasing an equivalent volume of renewable energy certificates to match their consumption. As volumes are annually matched, an organisation’s consumption on a calm, dark winter evening (when the grid mix is fossil-fuel heavy), could be “matched” to the output of a solar farm on a sunny summer day.
While this approach is compliant, such claims are coming under increasing scrutiny from organisations including the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). The EU has also sought to provide clarity to green claims by updating its Empowering Consumers Directive (EU 2005/29/EC).
A broad government review of the REGO system is underway, and we are likely to see a more temporal approach. This is already happening in France, where time-stamped renewable energy certificates allow for more accurate tracking and half-hourly matching of generation with consumption. In the UK, some energy suppliers are already adopting this approach, including Good Energy, OVO, Smartest Energy, Drax, TotalEnergies and npower.
We’re also seeing a notable drive towards transparency from consumers. One such organisation is Oxford Brookes, which has been investigating credible routes to achieving 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) across its estate. We’ve simulated various scenarios in which a mixture of onsite and contracted energy could match the university’s electricity consumption with carbon-free electricity sources, every 30 minutes of every day.
Key dates: There is no firm timeline for when reforms will be implemented, but the new government’s 2030 Clean Power goal is a key policy priority. So, we can expect to see some movement on this issue in 2025.
Get prepared: If you’d like work towards 100% renewable energy, ENTRNCE’s Matcher platform has a powerful simulation function that can identify the volumes and profiles of the required technologies to achieve your goal. Get in touch to find out more, or learn how we’ve helped Oxford Brookes.
CPPAs will become multi-layered to reduce risk
Traditionally, CPPAs involve a single provider supplying energy from a single renewable technology (e.g., solar or wind). In the near future, we’re set to see a shift towards layered agreements, where CPPAs integrate multiple renewable technologies across multiple geographies.
This approach diversifies energy sources, balancing the intermittency of individual technologies (e.g., solar's daytime generation or wind's variability). A portfolio structured this way offers corporate buyers a more consistent renewable energy profile and reduces risks commonly associated with single-source CPPAs, such as fluctuations in energy output or prices.
This shift is driven both by increasing scrutiny of corporate clean energy claims (as discussed, “100% renewable”) – and a need to better “time match” consumption with clean generation.
Key dates: Demand for corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) is expected to continue growing in 2025, building on significant growth in 2024.
Get prepared: ENTRNCE can stack and profile optimised CPPA solutions across all technologies – allowing you to better “match” your consumption with generation and work towards 100% renewable electricity. If you have onsite generation in the mix, we can model these assets and calculate the degree of self-supply. Get in touch to find out more.
Organisations will use storage and flexibility to slash energy costs
The UK government has outlined energy flexibility and battery storage as a crucial part of its grand plan to achieve clean power by 2030; balancing supply and demand in a renewable-heavy energy system.
For organisations, these two measures will play an important role in meeting net zero targets, and present an opportunity to benefit from reduced energy costs, by storing surplus energy for peak use, or getting paid to turn down.
Until very recently, most flexibility was accessed via an aggregator and only called upon when the grid needed balancing. This limited opportunities for many firms, and the government has cited concerns about the declining uptake of flexibility services among businesses. This is all set to change via the implementation of “P415”, which amends the Balancing and Settlement Code to allow Virtual Lead Parties to trade on the wholesale market directly at any time. In short, you can now start optimising your asset flexibility on the wholesale market at anytime and reap the financial rewards.
Key dates: P415 was implemented in November 2024.
Get prepared: To help you take advantage of P415, ENTRNCE’s Matcher platform has a “surplus calculator” - which identifies opportunities to make assets available and optimise investment return. It can also model on site storage charging and discharging profiles to optimised battery sizing. Get in touch to find out more.
