French Auctions for Biogas Guarantees of Origin
EEX has been appointed by the French Ministry for Energy to develop and operate the French auctions for biogas Guarantees of Origin (GOs).
The state is the sole seller at these auctions that take place on a quarterly basis. It sells the GOs produced by production devices benefiting from a support mechanism (with a contract signed after the 9 November 2020).
How do the auctions work?
Auctions allow the purchase of GOs from production devices benefiting from a support mechanism. These biogas installations are registered on behalf of the French State on the account of the DGEC (Direction Générale de l’Energie et du Climat). Only the DGEC can request the issuance of GOs and decide on their auctioning.
Prior to the auction, preferential buyers and certain communes, groups of communes or metropolitan areas can reserve GOs (for more information, see below “Overview of general timetable”). EEX then publishes the exhaustive list of the GOs available for purchase via the auction on the dedicated platform.
Participants registered with EEX and ECC to participate in the auction have a period of seven days to submit their orders and adjust their trading limits. The results will usually be published one day after the auction as well as the payment and delivery of the GOs take place.
Overview of the general timetable
Issuance of GOs
If the GOs resulting from the production of biogas from an installation benefiting from a support mechanism with a contract concluded after the 9 November 2020 have not been issued by the producer within a period of two months, they are automatically issued to the French state by EEX.
Reservation of preferential purchase
The operator of a biogas installation (or mandate) may inform EEX at least one month before the auction of the wish to buy the GOs of his/her production device at the average price of the auction plus a premium for at least one year. These GOs are not available for the pre-emption mechanism and are not subject to the auction.
Pre-emption
The commune, group of commune or metropolitan area within whose territory a production device described above is located may request, free of charge, part of the GOs of this production device for their own gas consumption. They have to put the necessary information on the registry no later than ten working days before the date of the auction, indicating the GO volume and the production period covered. Nine working days before the start of the auction, the GOs are transferred to the accounts of the commune, group of commune or metropolitan area and immediately cancelled.
Auction
The remaining GOs will be auctioned. Eight working days before the auction, information concerning the GOs put up for auction will be published on the EEX website and on the auction platform. Members may submit orders during the opening phase of the order book, which starts seven days before the auction day. Trading limits are updated until one day before the auction. Thereafter, the trading platform freezes the orders available in the order book and the algorithm matches the orders.
Auction settlement / Delivery
The day after the auction is held, ECC initiates the clearing process. Once the payments have been confirmed by ECC, EEX delivers the GOs to the accounts of the purchasing members.
Communication of results
EEX publishes information about the number of winners per lot, the volume awarded per lot and the average price awarded per lot (reference price).
Payment / Delivery of GOs resulting from preferential purchases
GOs resulting from preferential purchases are paid and delivered within six and seven working days after the auction.
Calendar of the auctions
Please find below the calendar of the French auctions for biogas GOs:
| Opening of order book | Closure of order book | Modification of cash trading limit | Order matching | ||
| Auctioning month | Prodcution months | 10am | 10am | 4pm | 12am |
| December 2024 | December 2023 to June 2024 | 27/11/24 | 04/12/24 | 03/12/24 | 04/12/24 |
| February 2025 | July to September 2024 | 29/01/25 | 05/02/25 | 04/02/25 | 05/02/25 |
| May 2025 | October to December 2024 | 29/04/25 | 06/05/25 | 05/05/25 | 06/05/25 |
| August 2025 | January to March 2025 | 30/07/25 | 06/08/25 | 05/08/25 | 06/08/25 |
| November 2025 | April to June 2025 | 29/10/25 | 05/11/25 | 04/11/25 | 05/11/25 |
For preferential purchase and pre-emption mechanism, please find the deadlines in the following table:
| Deadline for preferential purchase request | Deadline for pre-emption mechanism request | ||
| Auctioning month | Production months | 1 month before order matching | 10 working days before order matching |
| December 2024 | April 2024 to June 2024 | 04/11/24 | 20/11/24 |
| February 2025 | July to September 2024 | 05/01/25 | 22/01/25 |
| May 2025 | October to December 2024 | 06/04/25 | 18/04/25 |
| August 2025 | January to March 2025 | 06/07/25 | 23/07/25 |
| November 2025 | April to June 2025 | 05/10/25 | 22/10/25 |
Access to auctions
Participation in the auction is open to any company that meets – among others – the following criteria:
- Be an Account Holder on the French registry for biogas GOs
- Accept the GOs auction general terms and conditions and adhere to the corresponding trading agreement
- Be a member of ECC and sign a clearing contract (several clearing models proposed)
- Pay the annual fee for the auction account
Please contact EEX Customer Care in order to receive the admission documents.
| Publishing date | Title | File |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-04 | GOs put up for auction | xlsx (38 KB) |
| 2024-10-29 | General Terms and Conditions – EEX Auction for Biogas GOs in France | pdf (486 KB) |
| 2024-10-28 | Installations with GOs put up for auction | xlsx (11 KB) |
| 2024-10-22 | Customer Information – EEX launches auctions for biogas GOs in France on December 4, 2024 | pdf (162 KB) |
| 2024-10-22 | Specifications for the auctioning of biogas GOs – approved (available in French only) | pdf (361 KB) |