Customer-Centric Registry Plan Eliminates Risk, Freezes Fees, and Enables the Return of Millions to Stakeholders
Minneapolis, MN – CleanCounts, a nonprofit and North America’s most expansive nonprofit clean energy registry, today announced its formal proposal to provide registry platform services for stakeholders across the Western Interconnection. The plan offers a proven, fully functional alternative to costly and risky new registry software development while protecting the integrity of renewable energy certificate (REC) markets.
- Review the proposal (PDF)
- Review CleanCounts (then M-RETS) letters from Sept. 12, 2024 and June 6, 2025
- Watch the presentation (Youtube)
In response to WECC’s decision to divest from WREGIS and pursue building duplicative software, CleanCounts’ continuity-first approach keeps stakeholder data secure where it is today, freezes fees through 2029, and enables the return of reserve funds to customers.
“Western stakeholders don’t need higher costs, fewer features, and risky data migration,” said James Critchfield, Head of Registry and Market Integrity at CleanCounts. “They need continuity, customer service, and the confidence that their registries will remain climate-aligned and tech-forward. That’s exactly what CleanCounts delivers in service to our nonprofit mission.”
A Customer- and Continuity-First Proposal
- No Data Migration Risk – Stakeholder data remains secure in today’s environment, avoiding what WECC itself identified as “severe integration risk.”
- Fee Stability – Existing WREGIS compliance market subscription and transaction fees frozen through December 31, 2029.
- Return of Funds – Proposal enables WECC to return the projected $7 million in reserve funds to stakeholders, rather than diverting the funds for duplicative software development.
- Full Features from Day One – Immediate access to all current capabilities plus industry-leading tools for reporting, compliance, and voluntary markets.
CleanCounts’ Proven Performance
- Platform responsible for issuing more than 40% of RECs in North America (2024).
- 40+ engineers with over 510 years of cumulative software experience, including 117 years of registry-specific expertise.
- Unmatched Customer Service: In the past three years, CleanCounts has handled over 19,900 tickets from 6,100 unique contacts, solved 73% of cases in one touch, and maintained a median response time under 3.5 hours with full resolution in 16 hours.
- Proven delivery of complex, compliance-driven functionality in collaboration with multiple U.S. state, Canadian provincial, and regional regulators.
Climate-Aligned, Tech-Forward Innovation
CleanCounts has led the industry with:
- First issuance and retirement of hourly RECs (2021).
- First certificates for green hydrogen (2022).
- First renewable thermal certificates for RNG (2020).
- Advanced “Programs” module simplifying compliance.
- Secure multi-factor authentication and full-featured API access for every subscriber.
Engagement Opportunities
CleanCounts invites regulators and stakeholders to learn more about the proposal during two upcoming forums:
- Online Q&A – Friday, Aug. 29, 8:00 a.m. PT
- In-Person Luncheon – Friday, Sept. 5, 12–1:30 p.m. at the Renewable Energy Markets Conference, Room 335C.
About CleanCounts
CleanCounts, formerly known as M‑RETS, is North America’s most expansive clean energy registry and a trusted gateway to environmental markets. As a nonprofit organization, CleanCounts empowers participants across the energy ecosystem to track, trade, and validate clean energy production and consumption with confidence and transparency.
CleanCounts affirms that nothing in this communication should be construed as soliciting new customers in the Western Interconnection footprint beyond those served prior to March 11, 2022. References to stakeholders mean regulators, regulatory staff, nonprofit advocacy groups, and our pre–March 2022 customers.
