Paris - April 10th, 2018 - ENGIE and AIR PRODUCTS have signed a contract that will allow AIR PRODUCTS to maximise, trace and certify the green energy used in its manufacturing process, using blockchain technology.
The AIR PRODUCTS & ENGIE contract represents a double revolution in customer-supplier relationships, giving AIR PRODUCTS access to its own daily green certification system, but also ensuring it can associate relevant certification to its customers.
- AIR PRODUCTS will be able to identify green energy generation assets for an industrial gas production facility in France, based on their availability. Using blockchain technology, ENGIE will offer AIR PRODUCTS tamper-proof traceability of the origin of its green energy in near-real time.
- ENGIE and AIR PRODUCTS will develop an innovative offering enabling AIR PRODUCTS to certify the actual source of green energy used in the day-to-day manufacture of its products to its customers.
This step-out green electricity supply contract has established AIR PRODUCTS and ENGIE as pioneers in the certification of “green” industrial products in France – all thanks to the traceability offered by the blockchain protocol.
In practice, ENGIE will link the production of a wind farm in the Aveyron area and two hydroelectric plants of SHEM (1) (in Eget, Hautes-Pyrénées and Marèges, Corrèze) to the AIR PRODUCTS’ point of consumption at the Saint-Quentin Fallavier, Isère plant. Blockchain technology will ensure day-to-day tamper-proof energy certification as well as information on how the amount of renewable energy injected into the grid correlates with electricity consumption at the plant (2).
ENGIE will equip AIR PRODUCTS with a private web interface allowing it to directly view the production of identified renewable assets and access its own certificates registered in the blockchain.
AIR PRODUCTS can then associate its green energy certificates to the products delivered to its customers. Its customers can then use this data for their own Corporate Social Responsibility review.
"Certification by blockchain technology gives ENGIE the opportunity to transform its customer-supplier relationship. We not only provide green electricity, we support our customers in their energy transition" said Edouard Neviaski, CEO of ENGIE's Global Energy Management Business Unit, which manages the Group's activities on energy markets. "With this type of contract, our ambition is two-fold: to improve the monitoring of green energy consumption by our customers and to enable our customers to be involved in their traceability to the final consumer”.
"With this traceable green energy system, we can better support them in their sustainable development approach, just as we’re already doing with our logistics strategy, aiming to be more respectful of the environment.” concludes Kurt Lefevere, Vice President Northern Continent Industrial Gases Europe at AIR PRODUCTS.
(1) Société Hydro-Electrique du Midi, ENGIE’s subsidiary company, 3rd French hydroelectric producer
(2) The contract also relies on guarantees of origin from the identified production sites so the electricity can be described as green regarding the European regulations.
