# What tests must a new site pass before it can join an existing Verra grouped project?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/verra-grouped-project-five-tests-to-add-a-site

Eligibility criteria must ensure every new instance in an area is uniquely identifiable, shares the initial instances' baseline scenario, shares the same conditions relevant to additionality, uses the same technologies or measures, and meets all applicability conditions of the applied methodology.

## The five tests (Standard, section 3.5.7)

The proponent writes the eligibility criteria for each area (3.5.6); they must ensure all five points (3.5.7).

1. Uniquely identifiable: the site can be told apart from every other.
2. Same baseline scenario as the initial instances, or, where several activities run in each instance, the same combination of baseline scenarios.
3. Same conditions relevant to additionality as the initial instances.
4. Same technologies or measures as the initial instances.
5. Meets every applicability condition of the applied methodology.

## What counts as a condition relevant to additionality

Verra's footnote gives examples: common practice, the laws or policies relevant to regulatory surplus, how regional grid emission factors are set, and historical deforestation and degradation rates. Our reading: for an Indian factory the first three matter most: is the technology already common nearby, has a law made it compulsory since the initial sites joined, and which grid factor the methodology uses.

## What to bring to the developer

- Photographs, nameplate data and installation invoices that identify each machine and its location.
- Past fuel and electricity bills that show what ran before the change.
- A date and document showing when the new equipment started.
- Proof that the site was never enrolled in another registered Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) project (section 3.5.10 requires this unless Verra authorises).

## If a site fails one test

Our reading: a site that fails any test cannot be added to that area as drafted. A different technology or baseline would need its own area or project, which the developer decides with its verification body.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records that you can keep with your project evidence. Its in-house check is not an accredited third-party verification, and Senseible is not part of Verra's process.

- [What a grouped project in Verra is](https://senseible.earth/answers/what-is-a-grouped-project-in-verra)
- [The eligibility area of a grouped project](https://senseible.earth/answers/verra-grouped-project-eligibility-area-one-country)
- [Adding a batch at verification](https://senseible.earth/answers/verra-grouped-project-new-batch-at-verification)
- [Carbon credits](https://senseible.earth/carbon-credits)

Sources: [Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025)](https://verra.org/documents/vcs-standard-v5-0/)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Check the current VCS Standard, Registration and Issuance Process and Program Guide on Verra's site before you rely on this; Verra updates them periodically.