When it comes to renewable energy reporting and auditing for common frameworks like CDP, RE100, and CSRD, businesses face a fundamental challenge. Using a third-party vendor for the data collection and processing often provides little transparency on the details behind calculations, whereas do it yourself approaches can be error-prone, and resource-intensive. 

How do companies ensure accuracy and transparency in their audits without losing control over their energy data?

The challenges of a DIY approach

Some of the biggest pains in manually gathering your own electricity data include:

• Chasing suppliers for accurate information – Businesses often rely on multiple suppliers across their global electricity portfolio. It can be a challenge to obtain verifiable data from each in a timely manner.
•  Ensuring data is standardised - With data coming from multiple sources, ensuring this data is processed into the same format for analysis is a time-consuming task which can weigh down energy teams, especially in the lead up to auditing deadlines.
• Managing data across disparate spreadsheets – 74% of businesses still use spreadsheets to manage their energy data. This is a faulty system, as manual inputs can lead to errors and it is difficult to have the necessary oversight to conduct the calculations you need to respond to reporting surveys. Relying on a faulty system like this leaves businesses vulnerable to compliance risks. 

These challenges lead many businesses to seek out third-party vendors to handle the process—but this also comes with its own set of issues.

The Challenges of a Third Party Approach

Third-party vendors handle energy reporting for businesses, but they often operate as a black box—providing little transparency into how data is processed or how calculations are performed. While this may seem convenient, it leaves businesses in the dark about their own renewable energy reporting gaps.

This lack of visibility becomes especially problematic when discrepancies arise between the vendor’s analysis and an external audit. Without direct access to their own energy data and methodologies, businesses struggle to pinpoint where the gaps are, let alone address them. If issues arise, they’re left relying on a third party’s explanations—without the ability to verify or correct the data themselves.

Ultimately, outsourcing reporting can pose a risk. Businesses need more than just a compliance checkmark; they need full control over their energy data to ensure accuracy, transparency, and confidence in their reporting.

The Right Solution: A Digital Platform for Transparent Auditing

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The best approach is to use a digital platform that automates calculations while maintaining transparency. Imagine an AI-enhanced version of a third-party vendor—one where businesses can log in, track their own data, and see exactly how auditing calculations are performed. We have a proven track record of working with businesses like Google to provide this service. 

Instead of relying on opaque third-party processes, businesses have direct oversight of their data. If discrepancies arise during an audit, they can quickly pinpoint the issue—without being dependent on an external provider.

Key Features of the Solution include:

1. Standardized data 

Businesses can share their EAC and proof of cancellation data with Flexidao in multiple formats and languages. Our digitization is able to automatically standardize all of this data into one format, significantly reducing workload and improving oversight. 

2. Quality assurance (data gaps, vintage year, certificate validity, etc.) 

Flexidao also provides a quality check of the data to ensure the highest quality standards. This includes ensuring there are no gaps in the data and the EACs are valid for the reporting year. 

3. Comprehensive Overview for Optimized Reporting
   The platform provides a unified view of EAC balances, including certificate status and transaction history by country, region, and registry. It tracks and verifies contract performance, comparing expected EAC volumes with actual received volumes, helping to identify and address discrepancies. This provides audit-ready exports so the user can easily report on their electricity emissions to common disclosure schemes like RE100 and CDP.

With a clear, auditable, and error-free system in place, businesses don’t just meet compliance requirements—they gain the confidence and autonomy to truly own their energy data.

Want to find out more about how Flexidao’s Clean Energy Intelligence Platform can give you the oversight you need in the lead up to auditing?