Core Concept
QET-ELEC: Tokenized Electricity Attributes for Market-Based Scope 2
A QET-ELEC is how Greentruth makes the attributes of a specific volume of electricity portable, machine-readable, and audit-defensible — at hourly granularity, in a form that plugs cleanly into the GHG Protocol's market-based Scope 2 method. This page explains what the token is, what it carries, how it differs from a traditional Renewable Energy Certificate, and what it is not.
QET-ELEC (Electricity Attribute Token). A tokenized electricity attribute certificate issued on the EarnDLT registry (on Hedera Hashgraph) and verified to ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance. The token carries the attributes of a defined unit of electricity — geography, grid, hour, methodology — and supports hourly matching for 24/7 carbon-free electricity (24/7 CFE) strategies. It is a fuel- or electricity-attribute certificate, not a carbon credit, and does not transfer Scope 1 emissions between parties.
Request a Demo
See Hourly-Matched QET-ELEC in Action
Request a demo and we will walk through a QET-ELEC end-to-end — hourly granularity, market-based Scope 2 retirement, and the framework-portable export your reporting team will file.
What Is a QET-ELEC?
A QET-ELEC is a per-MWh electricity-attribute certificate that carries the verified attributes of the underlying electricity and is anchored on-chain so its provenance survives an audit. It is the electricity extension to Greentruth's QET family, sitting alongside QET-NG, QET-RNG, and QET-CCS.
Each certificate is single-mint enforced and retired irrevocably on-chain. A buyer who acquires and retires the token has anchored a specific MWh of verified electricity to a specific GHG Protocol Scope 2 claim — and no other party can use that same MWh to support a different one.
Greentruth issues the token on top of EarnDLT's tokenization infrastructure. It is delivered to the holder's wallet in both PDF and JSON form, then portable for reporting, retirement, or transfer — like any other QET.
What the Token Carries: Hourly Granularity, Geography, Methodology Version
The token carries the attributes a buyer's reporting and assurance teams need to substantiate a market-based Scope 2 claim — and to support more ambitious 24/7 carbon-free electricity strategies.
- Unit. One MWh of electricity.
- Hourly granularity. The hour in which the underlying electricity was generated, enabling temporal matching at the hourly level rather than annual averages.
- Geography and grid. Generation location, the grid or balancing area, and (where applicable) the deliverability path to the buyer.
- Generation attribute. The generation source and its associated emissions attribute, recorded as a verified attribute on the token.
- MRV tier and methodology version. Where the underlying data sits in the methodology's hierarchy plus the exact methodology and reference dataset version used.
- Verifier of record. The accredited third-party that signed off on the underlying data under ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance.
For the operative technical detail — generation-source treatment, deliverability boundary conditions, hourly-matching procedure — the long-form methodology is the authoritative reference.
How a QET-ELEC Differs from a Traditional REC
The token is built to substantiate a specific verified MWh of electricity in machine-readable form, with hourly granularity. Traditional Renewable Energy Certificates were built for an earlier generation of disclosure rules, and the differences matter when an auditor or a procurement program asks how the number was assembled.
| Instrument | What it conveys | Granularity | Verification standard | Retirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QET-ELEC | 1 MWh of electricity with generation attribute, grid, hour, methodology version, verifier of record | Hourly | ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance | Irrevocable on-chain |
| Traditional REC | 1 MWh of renewable electricity (attribute only) | Annual | Registry rules; no integrated ISO 14064-3 sign-off | Registry retirement |
| Producer self-attestation (spreadsheet) | A producer's claim | Self-declared | Self-declared | N/A |
The token is portable. It does the work of a Scope 2 contractual instrument, a verifier-grade attribute certificate, and a machine-readable export into the buyer's disclosure stack — in a single record.
Hourly Matching and 24/7 Carbon-Free Electricity Strategies
The most ambitious electricity buyers — large data center operators in particular — have moved past annual REC matching toward 24/7 carbon-free electricity strategies, where every hour of consumption is matched to an hour of verified carbon-free generation on the same grid. That motion requires an attribute certificate with hourly granularity and a credible chain of custody.
The token is purpose-built for that motion. Hourly granularity is a first-class attribute on every certificate, and the EnergyTag standard is the public reference point for how hourly matching is operationalized. Buyers can match hour-by-hour against their consumption, retire the matched volumes, and produce a record an auditor can inspect.
For data center operators specifically
For corporate buyers structuring market-based Scope 2
Designed to Satisfy Emerging Energy Attribute Certificate Frameworks
The token is built to be portable into any electricity attribute framework the buyer's market recognizes — not bound to a single proprietary scheme. Its attribute structure (hourly granularity, geography, grid, generation attribute, methodology version, verifier of record) is designed to satisfy the requirements of public Energy Attribute Certificate frameworks emerging in the market.
To make this concrete, consider a hyperscaler data center operator. Buyers at that scale have begun publishing their own internal T-EAC (Time-based Energy Attribute Certificate) framework expectations — Google's published framework being one well-known public example — and using those expectations as procurement criteria. The token carries the attribute structure a framework of that kind contemplates: per-hour, per-grid, verifier-stamped, retired on-chain. Citing this kind of framework is not a claim of partnership or affiliation; it is an illustrative reference point for how a credible electricity attribute certificate is expected to be assembled.
The point is portability. The certificate is a registry-grade record whose attributes any T-EAC framework — current or emerging — can recognize.
What a QET-ELEC Is NOT
A QET-ELEC is not a carbon credit, not an offset, and does not transfer Scope 1 emissions between parties. It is an electricity attribute certificate. It substantiates a specific verified MWh of electricity, retired on-chain to anchor a single Scope 2 market-based claim. A generator that issues these certificates keeps its own Scope 1 emissions on its own books; a buyer that retires them sharpens the inputs to its own Scope 2 market-based number — it does not net Scope 1 across the chain by some other route.
Three corollaries:
- Voluntary carbon market integrity initiatives that govern carbon credits and offsets do not govern the token. The relevant frame is the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Quality Criteria and the emerging family of public T-EAC frameworks.
- Token retirement is not a Scope 1 transfer mechanism. The retirement record anchors a single, irrevocable, on-chain market-based Scope 2 claim — nothing more.
- The certificate does not replace location-based Scope 2 reporting. Both methods coexist under the GHG Protocol; the token sharpens the market-based number.
Frequently Asked Questions
A QET-ELEC is a tokenized electricity attribute certificate issued on the EarnDLT registry under ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance, with hourly granularity to support market-based Scope 2 reporting and 24/7 carbon-free electricity strategies.
Request a Demo
See Hourly-Matched QET-ELEC in Action
Request a demo and we will walk through a QET-ELEC end-to-end — hourly granularity, market-based Scope 2 retirement, and the framework-portable export your reporting team will file.