For coal-fired power plant operators
Your coal PPA already holds the contracted position. SPARC lets your renewable arm fulfill a defined band inside that PPA, against registered delivery, while the original contract remains intact. Your margin is protected throughout. The PPA stays in force.
What does not change under SPARC
Your PPA
The original agreement with the grid operator remains legally intact. No counterparty replacement. No modification of terms.
Your margin
The stream agreement is designed so that your retained value matches what you would have kept under self-delivery. You do not give up margin to make the transaction work.
Your pace
A pilot begins with a defined tranche. Nothing requires a commitment to full phase-out. You control the scope and the timing.
The structural constraint
Long-term coal PPAs allocate production rights before new renewable capacity arrives. That is why adding lower-cost generation does not automatically reduce coal output. The contracted plant still holds the right to supply the agreed band and receive the associated payment.
That same structure is what makes SPARC useful. A SPARC stream registers a defined delivery band inside the coal PPA as a transferable package: the right to supply, receive payment, and carry the embedded emission right, along with the corresponding obligations where they move. The PPA stays in force. What changes is who fulfills that band.
The PPA is the asset
Your contract already secures offtake, payment, and grid access. Other generators compete for what you already hold.
A fixed horizon is also a deadline
The remaining term on your PPA is the window available to use that asset differently. Each year it runs unchanged is a year the opportunity does not compound.
Adding renewables alone is not enough
New renewable capacity built alongside contracted coal does not displace it by default. SPARC connects lower-emission delivery to the coal-backed obligation itself.
The economics
A coal operator assigns fulfillment of a SPARC stream only if retained value is at least equal to self-delivery. The stream agreement can release avoided coal cost, transferred risk, and transferred obligation value to the delivery party while preserving fixed-cost recovery, debt service, margin, residual PPA standing, and obligations the coal operator keeps.
The comparison below uses the current illustrative firm-band economics: $95/MWh of settlement value, $37/MWh of avoided coal cost, $2/MWh of risk relief, and $15/MWh of transferred obligation value.
Beyond the retained margin
The coal-side test is simple: the operator must remain financially neutral or better compared with self-delivery. Once that floor is protected, the transaction can create value that ordinary coal dispatch cannot.
Each effect starts at the level of delivered MWh. Across a defined SPARC stream and a remaining PPA term, the aggregate matters: cash costs fall, evidence accumulates, and integrated groups can turn internal renewable capacity into contracted delivery.
When the delivery party fulfills the SPARC stream, the coal plant does not burn the corresponding fuel. Avoided coal cost, risk relief, and transferred obligation value become the internal headroom that can fund stream compensation while the coal operator stays whole.
Each eligible MWh delivered under a registered SPARC stream creates a SPARC record. Where renewable delivery is used, the linked REC or equivalent certificate evidences generation source, while the ARC records the unused emission right. The transition record follows delivery, not intent.
For operators that also own renewable or storage assets, the demand the renewable arm needs may already sit inside the group. A SPARC stream can turn part of the coal PPA into contracted offtake for lower-emission delivery. This is an additional portfolio case, not a prerequisite for the basic mechanism.
The strategic case
Coal generation produces revenue for as long as the contract runs. If the PPA is not renewed or extended, that revenue stops at a known date. The asset remains on the balance sheet without guaranteed offtake, while renewable competitors spend the same period building contracted delivery records.
The window is finite. Each year that passes without action is a year that could have been used differently.
Each year of SPARC deployment reduces verified coal output and builds a metered record of lower-emission fulfillment. For groups with renewable assets, the PPA revenue can progressively support new commissioned capacity. At the end of the contracted term, the group arrives with operating evidence already in place.
The post-coal position is built during the terminal phase of the coal contract, not after it.
For integrated energy groups
The portfolio argument is specific to operators with renewable or storage capacity alongside the coal asset. Under SPARC, the contracted delivery position can remain inside the group. What changes is the fuel used to deliver it and the assets that deliver it. Coal generation is progressively substituted by lower-emission delivery within the same contractual framework. At PPA expiry, the renewable arm has an operating record rather than an ambition.
What it asks of you
SPARC is a proposed market instrument under stakeholder consultation. The first coal-operator conversations should focus on a practical stream: the PPA band, delivery window, obligations that could move, costs that would be avoided, and evidence needed for SPARC and ARC records.
We are engaging a small number of IPPs as design partners for SPARC's first transactions. That process involves reviewing the contractual position, identifying suitable delivery bands, mapping the regulatory pathway specific to the market, and scoping a pilot on a defined volume. Practical friction matters. It should shape the instrument before wider deployment.
First movers can establish the earliest verified record of coal-PPA substitution in the region and set the reference case for how SPARC operates at scale.
Working session
Review the mechanism, the coal operator economics, and the portfolio context. No commitment required at this stage.
Contractual review
Identify the delivery bands, payment layers, availability obligations, replacement-power treatment, and risks that could move under a SPARC stream.
Regulatory pathway
Map the regulator, system-operator, metering, and registry recognition required for the stream to be treated as eligible lower-emission fulfillment.
Scoped pilot transaction
A defined MWh volume, with metered delivery, linked energy-attribute evidence where relevant, SPARC records, and ARC issuance where the embedded emission right is unused.
Get in touch
We are running working sessions with a small number of IPPs to assess whether the clearing condition works within their specific contractual context. If the stream can clear, a pilot can follow.