About the OpenEAC Alliance
The OpenEAC Alliance is a group of industry professionals and organizations formed to ensure quality, consistency and transparency in distributed energy resource (DERs) measurement and verification.
What is an EAC?
An EAC is an Energy Attribute Certificate, a granular instrument that represents verified claims to the energy, capacity, and environmental attributes of distributed energy resources. Each EAC is assigned to a specific energy asset and captures the full profile of that resource: what type it is, when and where it produced or saved energy, what environmental benefits it delivers, and how much capacity it contributes to the grid. That capacity dimension is important because it reflects a resource's ability to reliably reduce demand or deliver power when the grid needs it most, which is increasingly what utilities and corporate buyers are looking for. EACs function like a nutritional label for distributed energy, specifying resource type, production time, precise location, local grid emissions intensity, and resource operation start date. Because EACs are tied to measured and verified performance data, they provide an auditable record of the energy, capacity, and environmental value a resource actually delivered, not just what it was projected to deliver.
What is the goal of the alliance?
The OpenEAC Alliance aims to enhance oversight and quality in energy measurement and verification, and to solve for structural barriers that have prevented the benefits of DERs from being properly valued. Instead of unclear or nebulous savings claims, the goal is to deliver clear, measurable, and auditable results.
The problem
There is no industry-wide standard for how to measure and verify the performance of distributed energy resources. Without consistent, transparent methodologies, it’s difficult for corporate buyers and utilities to confidently invest in DERs or compare the value of one resource against another. This measurement gap is holding back capital that could otherwise flow into distributed energy at scale.
Standardizing how we measure and verify DER performance, including their energy, capacity, and environmental contributions, unlocks the ability to value these resources properly and transact them through energy markets.
How it works
The OpenEAC Alliance is a volunteer body that provides oversight for the methodologies used to generate EACs registered on WEATS. The Alliance brings together participants from around the globe who share an interest in ensuring that EACs accurately reflect the verified performance of the underlying energy resources.
The Alliance maintains an open source methodological framework for certifying EACs, built on community standards and existing best practices. This approach requires a commitment to transparency, but it delivers lower costs for market participants while encouraging the development of more robust measurement and verification methods over time.
Who should join?
The OpenEAC Alliance is an open, global network of experts working to strengthen EAC standards and create industry-wide consistency in DER measurement and verification. If you work in clean energy M&V and care about getting the methodology right, we’d welcome your participation.
