BANGKOK, SINGAPORE, 26 October 2022 – Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (‘EGAT’), a state-owned enterprise in Thailand under the Ministry of Energy, today announced its partnership with Singapore-headquartered environmental, social, and governance (‘ESG’) fintech Hashstacs Pte Ltd (‘STACS’) to bring transparency to the renewable energy certificates (‘RECs’) market, and ensure the integrity of the instruments traded. The partnership memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Mr. Warit Rattanachuen, Assistant Governor – Research, Innovation and Business Development of EGAT, and Ms. Sharon Yuen, Chief Commercial Officer of STACS. Providing electrical energy for the whole kingdom, EGAT is the power utility in Thailand. To be rolled out in a phased approach, the partnership involves the usage of the blockchain-based ESGpedia, which powers the ESG Registry of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (‘MAS’) Project Greenprint.
EGAT is one of the world’s leading independent certifiers of renewable energy. As the sole local issuer of the International REC Standard (I-REC) in Thailand, EGAT certifies renewable energy production in Thailand and seeks to ensure traceability and high-standards of compliance with the I-REC Standard guidelines. It aims to deliver value for project owners (i.e. generators) and proof of claims for buyers (i.e. banks, corporates, and organisations).
RECs offer companies the opportunity to reduce their carbon emissions (scope 2) from electricity use. While REC is a key instrument in the transition to a net zero economy, the integrity of the renewable energy market has been called into question due to issues of double-counting. Data in the industry is also in disparate and fragmented sources, with data often stored in a plethora of different registries. These challenges not only undermine trust in RECs, but also hinder the impact of RECs towards real-world climate mitigation.
Mr. Warit Rattanachuen, Assistant Governor – Research, Innovation and Business Development at EGAT said: “Through the partnership, EGAT will utilise ESGpedia to prevent double-counting and promote data-backed RECs, with end-to-end traceability. STACS and EGAT will work closely together to establish integrity of the instruments, and exchange data with the aim of accelerating ESG excellence development in Thailand and ASEAN.
The main benefits that the partnership seeks to enable include greater transparency of the RECs lifecycle, with EGAT and market participants being able to easily access attributes and data of RECs via a common, standardized registry, ESGpedia, to allow them to better understand the quality of the RECs, facilitating better investment decisions and tracking against their own sustainability goals. The process of acquiring RECs will also be streamlined for project owners.
Another key benefit is the end-to-end traceability of the RECs, with the following all immutably recorded onto ESGpedia: the transaction and ownership details of each REC, as well as the immediate retirement of RECs upon purchase, to ensure no repeated or double-trading. This is especially important in ensuring the authenticity of the RECs traded in contributing to an actual positive climate change.”
Sharon Yuen, Chief Commercial Officer at STACS, said: “At STACS, we aim to enhance trust in ESG Finance, and enable our clients and partners to achieve their sustainability goals via holistic data and fintech tools. Through our partnership with Thailand state-owned power utility EGAT via ESGpedia, we officially expand our scope to the Thailand market, and seek to be a key driving force in enabling the region to achieve its carbon neutrality goals, starting with bringing greater transparency to the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) market.”
Developed by STACS, ESGpedia is a global ESG registry recording and maintaining the provenance of ESG certifications accorded by certification bodies in different sectors, as well as data and metrics that are verified by qualified third-party auditors. Providing the necessary fintech tools for effective ESG finance, ESGpedia is integrated with internationally-recognised REC and Carbon Credit registries, thereby serving as a single source of truth to validate the information of RECs and Carbon Credits via a verifiable and immutable audit trail. Powering the ESG Registry of the MAS’ Project Greenprint, ESGpedia is the central data pillar underpinning the financial sector in Singapore and beyond, aiming to enhance trust and support better sustainable financing.
Future phases of the partnership include collaborating with financial institutions and market participants to drive the clean energy transition in Thailand to achieve its carbon neutrality targets.
For further information, please contact:
STACS (https://stacs.io/)
Grace Lim, Senior Marketing Manager
Email: [email protected]
EGAT (https://www.egat.co.th/)
Malchutar Kingnet, Head, Renewable Energy Business Section
Email: [email protected]
About EGAT
EGAT is a state-owned enterprise under the supervision of Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance. The principal mission of EGAT is electricity generation, electricity acquisition, and electricity sales to the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), legal power user and neighboring countries such as Lao PDR and Malaysia. EGAT is also responsible for power related activities and services, producing and selling lignite and its by-products under the EGAT Act B.E. 2511 (1968) and its amendment.
EGAT is committed to its main mission of power generation and transmission to maintain energy security by taking into account the efficiency and production cost, promote reasonable price, and address the various needs of electricity users in the disruption age while caring for the society, communities, and environment as well as to support Thailand’s energy policy regarding carbon neutrality.
About STACS
STACS (Hashstacs Pte Ltd) is a Singapore-headquartered FinTech company focused on ESG FinTech, in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Greenprint for ESGpedia which powers the Greenprint ESG Registry. STACS serves as the Nexus of ESG Finance with ESG data across multiple industries and digital tools for the financial sector to scale decarbonisation financing, as well as a platform to provide high-quality carbon offsets to mitigate residual emissions. Its clients and partners include global financial institutions and corporates. STACS is an Award Winner of the MAS Global FinTech Innovation Challenge Awards 2020, and a two-time awardee of the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof of Concept (POC) grant, under the Financial Sector Development Fund administered by the MAS.
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