Gu’ertu River Stage VI and VII 17MW Bundled Hydropower Project

Audit Analysis

A 17 MW small-scale hydropower project under CDM with VVB-confirmed additionality and inherent permanence (avoidance-type project), but undermined by contradictory baseline methodology descriptions, inconsistent leakage treatment, and a significant discrepancy in reported emission reduction figures between monitoring reports. The project is functionally sound for its era but suffers from data reliability gaps that limit confidence in the exact magnitude of claimed reductions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Total ERR figures differ by more than 2× between the 2016 monitoring report (169,448 tCO₂e) and the 2022 monitoring report (78,309.841 tCO₂e), with no clear explanation of whether these refer to different periods or represent a revision
• ⚠Baseline methodology is described as 'project-specific' in the 2022 monitoring report but 'jurisdictional' in the 2010 validation report — a fundamental methodological contradiction
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with justification shifting from 'deemed negligible' (2016) to 'not addressed' (2022), leaving the more recent record without a defensible rationale
• ⚠Grid emission factor is from 2007 and no baseline reassessment date is recorded in any available document

Credit Vintages