Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin (REGOs) certificates kicked off late last year and did so with a whimper. Only one company has to date registered REGO certificates, a far cry from previous expectations they might swamp the market.
But that could all be about to change with the Commonwealth Government announcing yesterday that data centres will be required to buy REGOs to bring on new renewables.
Let’s take a look at how this might work.
A refresher on REGOs
After almost three years of consultation and policy design, the Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin scheme launched in November 2025. The purpose of the scheme is to certify renewable electricity generation to support claims from businesses, governments, and other voluntary parties about their clean energy use. Each renewable energy certificate contains information (known as “attributes”) such as the facility name, location, and year that it was produced.
Currently REGOs operate side-by-side Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) which are another option for renewable energy certification. Once LGCs retire in 2030, REGOs will be the only certification option.
A reason why the REGO design stage was so drawn out related to disagreements over whether the scheme should be voluntary (to encourage companies to go green through having more supply and therefore cheaper certificates) or additional (to compel new renewable investment but then at a higher certificate cost).
The final decision was a mishmash of both. While voluntary in nature, the REGO also included design features that restricted participation of legacy (pre-1997) renewable generation.
Nine months in, there has not been much reason to produce REGOs and consequently only one company, Ecovantage, has registered REGO certificates.
Whether this reflects awkward policy design, reduced corporate demand, or just inevitable teething issues with a new scheme no longer really matters.
That is because the Commonwealth Government’s announcement that data centres must offset their electricity consumption by purchasing REGO certificates now mandates their use and means additionality is central.
Breaking down the data centre announcement
There are multiple components to the announcement, but the clearest elucidation comes through the July ECMC Communique which mandates that: “data centres offset their electricity demand by investing in additional renewable generation located in the jurisdiction where the data centre is located … this will include through the use of a guarantee of origin scheme”.
This will be implemented through “nationally consistent standards” that will include options for jurisdictions to “opt out” in certain situations.
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has now published the detailed advice that sits behind this directive.
The table below unpacks how the policy might work.
Data centres will continue to be a hot topic
How to sensibly navigate the energy requirements of data centres is a rapidly evolving space with many questions still to be answered.
Given the high level of interest, the AEC is hosting a luncheon in Melbourne on 9th September that will further conversations about what is needed to smoothly bring data centres online.
Tickets for that lunch are now available and can be purchased here.
