Energy Attribute Certificates · Market Infrastructure · Analysis
On 28 April 2026, Xpansiv and Granular Energy announced a registry-integrated clean energy matching platform — a development that signals hourly REC tracking is entering its infrastructure phase, moving from voluntary experiments toward auditable, scalable market operations.
The announcement is not simply another software integration. The partnership connects two historically separate operational layers: certificate registry infrastructure and customer-facing hourly matching, allocation and reporting workflows. For utilities, power producers, traders and corporate buyers, this matters because clean energy accounting is under increasing pressure from the GHG Protocol Scope 2 revision process, SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2, and the emergence of EnergyTag-accredited Granular Certificate issuers — all of which are pushing markets toward temporal and geographic precision in clean energy claims.
The Partnership at a Glance
Xpansiv contributes Xpansiv Connect — described as a multi-registry integration hub and portfolio management system — which is integrated with 17 registries globally and facilitated transfers of more than 700 million RECs in 2025. Granular Energy contributes its software platform for EAC allocation, matching, transfer and customer reporting, which it operates with over 30 utilities, suppliers and traders worldwide, covering more than 70 TWh of clean energy.
Key Facts — Xpansiv & Granular Energy Partnership (28 April 2026)
| Item | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement date | 28 April 2026 | Xpansiv |
| Parties | Xpansiv and Granular Energy | Xpansiv |
| Core product concept | Registry-integrated granular energy matching delivered through one platform | Xpansiv |
| Technology components | Granular Energy platform + Xpansiv Connect multi-registry integration hub and portfolio management system | Xpansiv |
| Target users | Power producers, utilities, retail electricity providers, traders, brokers and corporate buyers | Xpansiv |
| Registry scope | Xpansiv Connect supports 17 integrated registries globally | Xpansiv |
| 2025 REC transfer activity | Xpansiv Connect facilitated transfers of more than 700 million RECs globally in 2025 | Xpansiv |
| Granular Energy managed volume | Over 70 TWh of clean energy across more than 30 utilities, suppliers and traders | Xpansiv |
Source: Xpansiv press release, 28 April 2026 — xpansiv.com/news
How the Integrated Platform Works
Traditional REC and GO markets were built around monthly, quarterly or annual certificate issuance and annual cancellation practices — operationally simple, but insufficient for proving when clean power was generated relative to consumption. Hourly matching requires a much denser data model: hourly consumption records, hourly generation profiles, certificate issuance records, registry balances, ownership transfers, customer allocations and claims documentation. Without automation, suppliers must reconcile all of these manually, making high-integrity claims expensive and error-prone.
The Xpansiv–Granular Energy integration attacks this problem layer by layer. Registry-issued EAC data flows into Xpansiv Connect, which pipes ownership positions and transaction information into Granular Energy's matching engine. Customer load data and clean generation data are imported and matched by time, location, technology and customer allocation rules. Where registries still issue monthly or annual certificates, those are reconciled against hourly metering profiles before customer allocation. Settlement or certificate-management actions then flow back toward registries through Xpansiv Connect, and customer-facing reports are generated showing the quality and timing of matching.
Integrated Platform Architecture — Functional Layers
Source: Xpansiv press release, 28 April 2026; granularcertificates.com analysis
A Market Maturing: Key Infrastructure Milestones
The Xpansiv–Granular Energy announcement arrives at the end of a concentrated period of market-building activity. PJM-GATS became the first U.S. REC tracking system capable of hourly certificate trading in 2024, while M-RETS was developing hourly trading functionality and NAR was running hourly certificate pilots. In June 2025, EnergyTag accredited the first Granular Certificate issuers — Energinet in Denmark under direct GC issuance and Flexidao under a configuration combining monthly certificates with hourly production data. LevelTen Energy, the GC Trading Alliance and ICE launched a GC Marketplace in PJM in October 2025, creating the first dedicated trading venue for hourly carbon-free energy through GCs.
These developments represent a transition from proof-of-concept to market infrastructure. The GHG Protocol Scope 2 consultation — open from October 2025 to January 2026 — placed hourly matching and deliverability at the centre of the next major revision to corporate electricity accounting rules. SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2 development similarly identifies tighter integrity requirements for low-carbon electricity, including temporal and geographic matching, as a core technical update expected to become mandatory from 1 January 2028. Together, these policy signals create the demand environment in which registry-integrated hourly matching software becomes not a premium offering but a compliance necessity.
Timeline — Hourly EAC & Granular Certificate Infrastructure Milestones (2022–2026)
Sources: Xpansiv (2022, 2026); S&P Global Commodity Insights (Sep 2024); EnergyTag (Jun 2025); LevelTen Energy (Oct 2025); GHG Protocol (Oct 2025); SBTi (Nov 2025)
Stakeholder Implications and Open Risks
The near-term implications differ by market participant. Utilities and retail electricity providers can move toward packaged hourly-matched green tariffs without manual reconciliation. Corporate buyers gain more transparent evidence of when and where clean energy attributes were matched to their load — material for future-proofing claims as Scope 2 rules tighten. Power producers gain the technical basis to differentiate production by hour, location and scarcity value rather than selling undifferentiated annual attributes. Traders and brokers can manage certificate positions across registries and support more granular transaction strategies as liquidity develops.
Several risks and limitations remain open. Registry readiness is uneven — many systems still issue monthly or annual certificates, and hybrid reconciliation approaches must be designed with clear auditability. Hourly segmentation can fragment liquidity, potentially creating scarcity value in certain hours but reducing market depth overall. EnergyTag accreditation covers the tracking infrastructure; it does not itself constitute a carbon accounting or target-setting framework, so users must still align claims with GHG Protocol, SBTi, RE100 and applicable local law. Additionality — whether certificate procurement drives new renewable capacity — remains a separate assessment not resolved by hourly matching alone. Regulatory uncertainty also persists: the final form of GHG Protocol Scope 2 revisions and SBTi V2 is not yet published.
The Xpansiv–Granular Energy partnership should be understood as part of a broader 2025–2026 convergence of registry modernization, marketplace development, standards consultation and software productization. For market participants tracking GOs, REGOs, RECs and I-RECs, this development is a clear signal that granular certificate infrastructure is shifting from voluntary innovation toward interoperable, auditable market operations — and that the window to build the operational capability to match that infrastructure is narrowing.