Who should certify and account for biomass in the following cases:

If biomass is purchased from biomass suppliers who are not exchange participants?

To set off such a transaction as sustainable:

• The parties must agree that the supplier must collect the required evidence of sustainability;

• Such biomass participant must become an exchange participant for the purpose of providing sustainability information;

• The buyer of the biomass must register such transaction on the exchange with the RED BP label prior to the start of the execution period using the functionality for registering “OTC (over the counter) transactions”. To access this functionality, a request must be made via the Customer Service email;

• During the execution period of the transaction, the biomass supplier

If the biomass feedstock is purchased and crushed by the biomass user (heat producer)?

In this case, the heat producer has to register a warehouse in the RED BP system, where it will collect and declare all the data on the compliance of the purchased raw materials with the sustainability criteria, like all biomass suppliers.

In this case, the purchaser will have to submit to the Operator at the end of the year an auditor’s certified conclusion that such purchaser has purchased and consumed (according to the accounting data) only the quantities of biomass declared to the Operator (i.e. that there have been no purchases, transfers and/or consumption of biomass quantities that have not been declared by the purchaser to the Baltpool system).

If the buyer does not purchase the feedstock itself, but only purchases biomass through exchange transactions or transactions registered in the OTC transactions functionality, no auditor’s report will be required. In this case, confirmation from the buyer that no separate purchase of feedstock has taken place will be sufficient.

Could small amounts of uncertified biomass, for example up to 5-10% of annual demand, be tolerated as a tolerance in the certification process?

The RED II Directive does not foresee the possibility to have such an exemption, nor does national legislation provide for such an exemption.

What if, due to warm weather, biomass purchased before 1 May (or even physically delivered to the place of use) are left over and will be burned after 1 May?

According to the Centralised Biomass Trading Rules, all fuel delivered to buyers’ sites before 1 May is automatically considered sustainable, regardless of when it is burnt. Buyers have to inventory and declare to the system the biomass balances inventoried during the month of May, which will be considered sustainable.

If a company is no longer participating in the ETS but has allowances received or purchased on its balance sheet, is it obligatory for such a heat supplier to use only certified biomass in the installations that previously participated in the ETS?

This question is best answered by the Climate Policy Group of the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania or the Environmental Protection Agency.