The electricity transition is entering a new phase. As renewable penetration increases, the challenge is no longer building clean generation but delivering it when demand occurs.
Joe Kwiatkowski, founder of Matched, sets out how hourly transparency can create competitive advantage for suppliers, restore consumer trust, and unlock investment in grids and flexibility.
The United Kingdom power system has reached an important milestone. Since 2024, renewable energy sources have generated more than half of the UK’s electricity, which means that the annual accounting system is increasingly ill-equipped to reflect real power flows or reward suppliers for their decarbonisation efforts. “We see offers from power suppliers that are branded identically, but actually differ by 20 or 30 percentage points in terms of how renewable they actually are on an hourly basis,” Joe explains. As a result, suppliers that have invested in diversified renewables and smarter procurement are under-recognised, while consumers are left unable to distinguish between power providers.
Matched, an independent transparency initiative that applies sub-hourly matching to track the physical flow of electricity between renewable generation and consumption, set out to change this. Joe and his team have already demonstrated feasibility at scale: “We’ve done half-hourly matching on 213 terawatt hours of generation across 25 suppliers in the UK.”
Matched launched at a moment of rapid market alignment. In the UK, 46 suppliers now offer hourly matched tariffs, representing a fourfold increase year-on-year compared to November 2024. Globally, 73% of electricity demand is already in markets where hourly matched products are available.
This momentum is spurred by offtakers looking to align their procurement with hourly principles, such as the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy coalition and the increasing availability of market solutions like EnergyTag’s time-stamped Energy Attribute Certificates.
Hourly matching is increasingly also a commercial decision, as renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels. The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for clean technologies is expected to fall 22-49% by 2035, while storage prices are also hitting new record lows, making clean electricity more dispatchable. Suppliers that align renewable generation with demand are therefore not only lowering emissions, but also offering more reliable, cheaper power.
The UK government’s decision to maintain 30-minute matching requirements for low-carbon hydrogen demonstrates that rigorous temporal alignment between clean energy claims and actual generation is essential for grid stability and genuine decarbonisation. Its reasoning was clear: relaxing to monthly or annual matching lacks credible evidence and risks undermining system stability, wider decarbonisation efforts, and affordability for all energy users. This same logic should extend to AI data centres. By requiring 24/7 CFE with hourly matching and proven additionality, the UK would drive the renewable energy and storage investments needed to achieve its 100% clean power by 2030 goal while preventing corporate greenwashing from undermining genuine climate progress.
The UK can lead by making hourly matching the requirement, not the exception – and Matched can help. While the UK remains Matched’s primary focus, the model is built for global expansion.
