This pilot will match one of Microsoft’s Amsterdam datacenter’s hourly energy consumption with Dutch offshore wind. Microsoft will be a flagship customer of the integrated 24/7 solution, which will enable Eneco’s customers including Microsoft to have access to FlexiDAO’s 24/7 renewable energy matching tools at scale.

Microsoft engaged with energy supplier Eneco and software provider FlexiDAO in order to pilot a procurement arrangement that can truly eliminate emissions from the electricity it buys for its datacenters. In this pilot, Eneco will provide Microsoft with green energy not only on an annual basis, but for every hour of the day. As stated in this guide, 24/7 green energy is essential to push the energy transition since it’s about moving from offsetting GHG emissions, to fully eliminating them from the grid. This pilot project was launched to demonstrate that 24/7 carbon-free energy is possible in compliance with official energy certification schemes and to enable more buyers to have access to 24/7 solutions.

In the context of the pilot, carbon-free power is produced by one of Eneco’s offshore windfarms located off the Dutch coast. The generation is consumed by Microsoft Netherlands, and will now be matched hourly at one of its datacenters.

Following the guidelines defined by the EnergyTag initiative, FlexiDAO is enabling the issuance, transfer and claim of Granular Certificates (i.e. hourly time-stamped energy attribute certificates) in order to monitor and certify the 24/7 synchronicity score of the CPPA while complying with the Dutch underlying certificate scheme – European GOs – as implemented in Dutch law. CertiQ (Dutch GOs issuing body) acts as the supervising party ensuring the compliance of the claims with the Dutch GOs scheme.

In line with the recommendations provided by this guide,  the metering data used for the certification will be third-party certified settlement data, provided to FlexiDAO by a Dutch regulated metering company after receiving the permission from Eneco and Microsoft.

Thanks to Eneco and FlexiDAO’s integrated 24/7 solution, Microsoft will be able to:

• Monitor and calculate the 24/7 synchronicity score of its CPPA supported by the claim of GCs and GOs
• Obtain all the GOs needed to submit the yearly Scope 2 reporting
• Calculate the location-based and market-based CO2 emissions hour-by-hour in line with the GHG Protocol Scope 2 guidelines

The learnings and outcomes of this project will enable many more other market participants – including Microsoft – to include 24/7 monitoring into their procurement strategies and Scope 2 reporting, incentivizing adoption of 24/7 renewable energy matching at scale and fostering the decarbonization of local grids.

At the same time, the active participation of CertiQ ensures that the project is the first-of-its-kind since it has implemented a CPPA 24/7 certification mechanism backed by the first global guidelines on hourly certification (i.e. EnergyTag) together with the existing GO scheme.