Press Releases

Corporate Renewable Energy Initiative (CoREi), holds seminar on 24/7 (real-time matching)
 renewable energy procurement and the green premium

- 60 Korean companies and institutions take part in a knowledge-sharing session on corporate renewable energy issues -

Corporate Renewable Energy Initiative (CoREi) held a seminar on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, at the President Hotel on the theme of 'The Concept and Current Status of 24/7 (Real-Time Matching) Renewable Energy Procurement.' Around 100 participants from about 60 Korean companies and institutions with an interest in the renewable energy transition, including CoREi member companies, attended to discuss about the concept of real-time matching procurement, a live issue in renewable energy, as well as about the green premium and greenhouse gas emissions accounting, and to explore corporate renewable energy transition strategies.

CoREi is a corporate-led initiative that supports companies in declaring a transition to renewable energy and in implementing the targets that follow, in pursuit of wider renewable energy use. Jointly launched in 2020 by the UN Global Compact Network Korea, WWF-Korea and the Korea Sustainability Investing Forum (KoSIF), CoREi strives to strengthen corporate capacity to expand renewable energy procurement and, as a channel for information exchange between government policy and companies, aiming to propose relevant policies and improve the environment for renewable energy procurement.

Held as part of CoREi's knowledge-sharing activities, the seminar was designed to deepen Korean companies' understanding of how the 24/7 (real-time matching) procurement concept came about and whether it can be implemented technically. It also examined the 'green premium' scheme and how it relates to greenhouse gas emissions accounting and Korea's emissions trading scheme, thereby supporting companies' renewable energy strategies.

After the Korean government emphasized wider use of carbon-free energy at COP28, the concept of 24/7 CFE, or 'real-time matching,' in which the generation and purchase of carbon-free energy are matched in real time, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, began to be discussed in Korea as well. Companies therefore need to set the direction of their renewable energy transition strategies on the basis of a sound understanding of real-time matching, which is put forward as a way to overcome the intermittency of renewable energy and the question of additionality in corporate renewable energy procurement. Companies also need a clear understanding of how Korea's emissions trading scheme and RE100 view the green premium, a widely used procurement option, and need to respond accordingly if they are to find stable and effective strategies.

Against this backdrop, the seminar opened with a presentation on the concept and status of 24/7 (real-time matching) procurement by Taeyoung Jin, Professor in the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Engineering at Jeonbuk National University. Professor Jin compared RE100 with the Korean corporate renewable energy scheme (K-RE100) to highlight the issues facing the Korean scheme, and introduced a range of global cases of hourly renewable electricity procurement. On that basis, he set out the key questions around real-time renewable energy procurement and explained the need for systems to track renewable energy volumes and to monitor companies' electricity demand in real time, through data-based virtual power plants and the development of T-EACs together with a framework for trading them.

In the next presentation, Taehan Kim, Principal Researcher at KoSIF, spoke on RE100 and the green premium scheme, explaining how market-based Scope 2 emissions are calculated under GHG Protocol guidance when green premium is used, and how the scheme relates to Korea's emissions trading scheme.

The final session was a comprehensive discussion in which the presenters were joined by Jinhee Kim, General Manager of the New Energy Business Department at Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), and Jeongseok Lee, Team Manager of the RE100 Management Team in the NRE Policy Division at the Korea Energy Agency(KEA). They discussed real-time matching and the green premium, followed by a question-and-answer session.

CoREi currently has 37 Korean companies as members, and further details on its activities are available on its website (www.corei.co.kr).

Inquiries: nhn5505@kosif.org, syseo@kosif.org