The Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) have released their Lighting Activities Issues Paper and Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), concerning the setting of targets for the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program for 2021 – 2025.

Lighting Activities Issues Paper

DELWP have proposed the phasing out of Part 21 (residential) and Part 34 (commercial) VEU lighting activities by 2021. Options have been presented for the timeline for this transition as follows:

In brief, for both Part 21 and Part 34, there is the option of a longer transition period with reduced incentives on the way, or a shorter transition period with normal incentives.

The issues paper will be discussed in a stakeholder consultation event next Wednesday in Melbourne. Stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide feedback to DELWP on the Lighting Issues Paper and proposed changes by the end of January 2020.

Regulatory Impact Statement

The RIS outlines DELWP’s modelling and methodology for the establishment of proposed future targets for VEU for the 2021 to 2025 period. Five scenarios have been modelled and evaluated in the RIS, assessing the social and economic impact of VEU across the breadth of scheme participants, business and the community. The scenarios are designed to compare the effects of decreasing versus increasing annual targets.

The favoured target regime is an increasing one, outlined as follows:

• 6.5 million certificates for 2021
• 6.7 million certificates for 2022
• 6.9 million certificates for 2023
• 7.1 million certificates for 2024
• 7.3 million certificates for 2025

This is a signal to the market of the scheme’s continuation and focus on growth. The setting of targets has a significant impact on scheme participation and certificate price. It will be important for DELWP to define the suite of activities which will be responsible for the creation of VEECs to satisfy the increased targets. These activities have been broadly touched on in the RIS, however it will be an important next step for the detail of these activities to be communicated.

For further information, please click HERE to visit the DELWP website.