Can we monitor differently from the Verra methodology if our meter set-up is different?

Sometimes. Verra allows deviations only for monitoring and measurement: the data and parameters set at validation, the parameters you monitor, or the monitoring plan. A deviation must not make the result less conservative unless accuracy improves, and is allowed only at validation or verification.

What can and cannot change

• Allowed: monitoring and measurement requirements, including data and parameters available at validation, data and parameters monitored, and the monitoring plan.
• Not allowed: a deviation from any other part of the methodology.

The conservativeness test

A deviation must not negatively affect how conservatively reductions are quantified, except where it increases accuracy. Verra's own reasons for allowing deviations are that an alternative method may suit your project better, or reach the same accuracy, or be more conservative than the methodology's.

When and how it is reported

• Only at validation or verification, never in between.
• The consequences are reported in the validation or verification report and in every later verification report.
• A deviation is not precedent-setting: it does not become a rule for other projects.

A sensible way to raise a meter difference

1. Write down what the methodology asks you to measure, where, and how often.
2. Write down what your plant measures instead, and why it differs.
3. Show which way it pushes the result. If it could overstate savings, add a correction that lowers the claim.
4. Put it in the monitoring plan before validation, and ask your validation and verification body (VVB) early.

Example: finer meters than the methodology asks for

• Methodology asks: monthly fuel use from the main tank
• Your plant has: flow meters at each furnace, read daily
• Effect: finer, more frequent data is usually more accurate, so the case for the deviation is straightforward
• Opposite case: a single meter read less often than asked must be shown not to overstate savings, for example by claiming less

An example of the reasoning. The VVB decides whether a deviation is acceptable.

What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps your fuel and electricity records dated and tied to their source documents, so a VVB can see exactly what was measured, when and from which document. It does not register projects or issue credits; Verra and your validation and verification body do.

• Project description deviation after validation
• What goes in a verifier pack
• Carbon credits

Sources: Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025), section 3.19

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Section numbers are from VCS Standard v5.0; re-check them when Verra publishes a new version.