Meeting obligations as a liable entity

Obligation to report on electricity acquired

A total of 119 electricity retailers were required to report on the electricity they acquired during 2016. This was one less than the 120 electricity retailers who reported in 2015.

By 14 February 2017—the final surrender date for 2016 liability—97.5 per cent of electricity retailers had submitted their energy acquisition statements.

The total energy acquisition reported in the lodged statements was 172 433 418 megawatt hours, comprising 212 662 962 megawatt hours of relevant electricity minus 41 074 054 megawatt hours of exemptions in 2016.

Surrender of renewable energy certificates

The combined compliance rate for electricity retailers meeting their 2016 obligations by surrendering large-scale generation certificates and small-scale technology certificates was 93.8 per cent. This compares with the 99.7 per cent liability compliance rate in 2015.

The number of certificates that electricity retailers need to surrender each year depends on the renewable power percentage and small-scale technology percentage (see page 20).

The 2016 renewable power percentage was 12.75 per cent. This means that electricity retailers needed to surrender a total of 21.43 million large-scale generation certificates.

The 2016 small-scale technology percentage was 9.68 per cent. This means that electricity retailers needed to surrender 16.95 million small-scale technology certificates.

By 14 February 2017, electricity retailers had surrendered 19 676 342 million large-scale generation certificates (89.3 per cent compliance) and 16 678 285 million small-scale technology certificates (99.9 per cent compliance).

Electricity retailers who failed to submit their required number of certificates must lodge a shortfall statement and pay a shortfall charge.

Graph 9: Certificate surrender in 2016

Certificates surrendered for other reasons

Owners of certificates can choose to surrender certificates for any reason.

For example, they may choose to support the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources over and above the Renewable Energy Target. This is known as voluntary surrender. See Spotlight...Extra demand for renewable energy certificates for more information.

As table 11 shows, in 2016 a total of 1 133 669 certificates (representing 70 transactions) were voluntarily surrendered in the REC Registry, the majority (1 092 066) for GreenPower. More than 99 per cent of these were large-scale generation certificates.

This compares with 1 324 434 certificates (representing 114 transactions) in 2015, with 98 per cent being large-scale generation certificates.