Individuals or companies that are registered owners of certificates can choose to surrender certificates to the Clean Energy Regulator to:

• support additional generation of electricity from renewable energy sources

• remedy non-compliance under the scheme, or

• meet GreenPower obligations.

Offers made for these reasons are considered ‘voluntary offers’. This is covered under section 28A of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000.

Individuals or companies may also offer certificates for voluntary surrender to offset the impacts of improper creation of certificates under the civil penalties and other remedies provisions of the legislation, or to meet enforceable undertaking obligations under section 154Q of the Act. If offers are made for these reasons they are considered to be ‘non-compliance surrender offers.

How to make voluntary surrender offers

To voluntarily surrender certificates you must be a user in a REC Registry general account and have the ‘voluntary surrender’ permission.

Before you make a voluntary surrender offer, certificates will need to be either purchased and successfully transferred to your account, or created and registered through your account. Once you have valid certificates in your account, you can make a voluntary surrender offer using the voluntary surrender function in the REC Registry.

To voluntarily surrender certificates:

1. Log into your REC Registry account

2. Click on 'Surrender' menu heading

3. Select the 'Voluntary surrender' menu item

4. Select the 'Voluntary surrender' button. In the 'Filter certificates' section, select either 'STC' or ‘LGC’ as the 'Certificate type' and any other required search criteria, then click the 'Filter' button.

5. Select either ‘Voluntary’ or ‘Non-compliance’ as the ‘Surrender type’, enter the number of certificates to be surrendered and the reason you are surrendering them

6. Read and agree to the legal declaration and then click the 'Surrender certificates' button

7. You will be redirected back to the voluntary surrender landing page and a confirmation of the surrender will display at the top of the page, including the surrender offer ID.

Offers are confirmed via email before they will be accepted by the Clean Energy Regulator. Confirming your offer will ensure the details you submitted are correct, and that you understand the conditions of the voluntary surrender process.

Individuals or companies who believe that they need to surrender for the improper creation of certificates should contact the Clean Energy Regulator prior to submitting a voluntary surrender offer.

The Clean Energy Regulator aims to process voluntary surrendered certificates within four weeks of the offer being made.

Find out more about creating, registering and transferring large-scale generation certificates and small-scale technology certificates.

Voluntary surrender and GreenPower

Businesses who make voluntary offers to meet GreenPower obligations should note that:

• Large-scale generation certificates need to be created and registered using the correct renewable energy source, then transferred and accepted before a voluntary offer can be made.

• Offers may only be made once a year, and are accepted at the discretion of GreenPower administrators.

• GreenPower does not use small-scale technology certificates for compliance purposes.

How to cancel a voluntary surrender offer

Voluntary surrender offers can be withdrawn through your REC Registry account up until the offer is accepted by the Clean Energy Regulator. Once an offer has been accepted, the certificates are permanently removed from the market and cannot be traded or sold.

To withdraw a voluntary surrender offer:

1. Log into your REC Registry account

2. Click on the 'Surrender' menu heading

3. Select the 'Voluntary surrender' menu item

4. In the 'Search surrender offers' section, select 'Pending' as the 'Offer status' and click on the 'Search' button. Voluntary surrender offers awaiting Clean Energy Regulator processing will display in the 'Surrender offers found' section.

5. To select the transfer to withdraw, click on the checkbox located to the right of the Surrender ID (this will only be for transfers that have not been accepted by the Clean Energy Regulator, as you cannot withdraw an offer once it has been accepted).

6. Click the 'Withdraw' button.

7. A confirmation message will display at the top of the page.

If withdrawal of your offer is successful, the withdrawn certificates are returned to the account, ready to be used for future transactions.