Two companies, including one of Australia’s leading environmental certificate agents, face bans from participating in the Victorian Energy Upgrades scheme, after allegedly breaching the program’s rules.
The Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program incentivises the state’s households and businesses to invest in energy efficient appliances and building upgrades by offering discounts.
When a household or business accesses a discount through the scheme, the accredited providers create Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates (VEECs), which are then sold to energy retailers to meet annual energy savings targets set in Victorian legislation.
Last week, state regulator the Essential Services Commission (ESC) said that it has taken enforcement action against two accredited providers – Green Energy Trading and Vision Environmental Solutions – for failing to follow the rules.
The ESC alleges that Vision Environmental Solutions and contractors working on its behalf made false claims about weather sealing and shower rose upgrades, including claiming upgrades that did not occur and exaggerating the number of upgrades completed.
The ESC says this includes allegations of providing false customer details and submitting photos of different properties and with manipulated geo-tags as evidence of upgrades.
“Vision Environmental Solutions is banned from creating certificates for weather sealing and shower upgrades for six months,” the regulator said on Friday.
“The commission also refused registration of 2,510 Victorian energy efficient certificates, valued at over $200,000.”
The second company, Green Energy Trading – a leading certificate agent and renewable energy advocacy and analysis provider – is alleged to have failed to obtain consumer consent for non-building-based lighting upgrades.
In a statement, Green Energy Trading says the allegations relate to a contractor working on the company’s behalf, which had installed energy efficient lighting in a shared commercial carpark.
“Non building-based lighting involves outside lighting often in multi-business locations, like a shopping centre carpark, which can make the installation process exceptionally confusing and difficult,” Green Energy Trading COO Nick Butler said on Monday.
“[This] work relates to a single installation company, all the installations took place and complied to all standards however Green Energy Trading could not guarantee the appropriate consumer consent was obtained with each job.
“We regret to the confusion which led to the incorrect signing of documents by the appropriate consumer in this instance.
“Green Energy Trading has also committed to continuing to support the system owners involved.
“We regret we did not do enough to confirm the correct signatures from these complicated sites and have amended our systems and processes accordingly to ensure this does not happen again.”
Butler says the company worked together with the VEU through the entire investigation and agreed to surrender 15,881 energy efficiency certificates and voluntarily withdrew a further 1,116 certificates – valued at more than $1.3 million.
The ESC has also banned Green Energy Trading from creating certificates for non-building-based lighting upgrades for three months.
ESC chair and commissioner Gerard Brody says accredited businesses must have safeguards in place to ensure contractors working on their behalf act with integrity.
“If they don’t, it’s their reputation and profits at stake,” Brody said.
“Providing false details and failing to obtain consumer consent are serious breaches of VEU rules.”
“These businesses have admitted fault and committed to improvements that will prevent future breaches, and they’re well aware that further breaches will result in more serious enforcement.”
The VEU scheme was originally launched in 2009, but legislation to extend the scheme by another 15 years was passed through state parliament in May, following a nearly $6 million strategic review of its design.
From July 2024, VEU discounts were made available for houses switching their gas cooktops for electric induction stoves, and for a wider range of hot water and space heating heat pumps.
In an update on the scheme’s progress in August, state energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio said 99,000 households had participated in program, with that number expected to exceed 170,000 households by year’s end.
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
