The Clean Energy Regulator has warned that there will be zero tolerance of ‘cowboys’ in federal Labor’s Cheaper Home Batteries scheme, as the industry readies for one of the biggest boom-times it’s ever seen.
In an industry webinar on Tuesday, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) said it was keeping an eagle eye out for any signs of regulatory non-compliance, dodgy sales tactics or poor customer service under the the $2.3 billion rebate program, which is due to launch in July.
The webinar, co-hosted by the federal government’s Department of Climate Change Energy the Environment and Water (DCCEW), attracted more than 1,000 attendees, seeking further detail and clarification on a policy broadly considered the most important to consumer energy since the launch of the national rooftop solar rebate.
Matt Power, a general manager at the CER, told the webinar that the battery rebate was an “excellent program” and a welcome addition to the SRES – the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme that governs the federal rooftop solar rebate. But only if it is done right.
“[Cheaper Home Batteries] will help individual households manage cost of living pressures, will create many jobs for the industry … [and] provide those broader benefits to all electricity users, [distribution networks] and others in operating the grid,” Power said.
“But in implementing this, our focus is to ensure we get it right for consumers, the industry and the industry energy transition.”
For battery retailers and installers, this means getting across the rules of the SRES, which were overhauled and tightened up in 2021-22 in a bid to weed out shonky operators and dodgy practices that were marring the rooftop solar rebate.
Key reforms included the requirement of written compliance statements for home energy system providers confirming all relevant design and install standards have been met according to the requirements of both the SRES scheme and local, state and territory rules.
Another new requirement was for evidence demonstrating the relevant agent has physically installed or physically supervised the installation, such as time-stamped photos – or selfies – including during job set up, during mid-installation check-up, and during testing and commissioning.
Power says these rules will apply to battery installs under the new rebate, too, and the regulator – alongside other industry bodies and groups – will be paying extra careful attention to whether the industry is playing by the rules.
“If we find that retailers are signing false written statements to the regulator, we have a range of compliance actions that we can apply,” Power said.
“One, we can remove them from the scheme, so any installations conducted through that retailer will not be eligible for STCs [the rebate] in the program.
“We can also take civil and criminal prosecution against these entities. We have taken a number of actions against [rooftop solar] installers retailers in the past for signing these false statements.”
Dodgy sales tactics are also on the regulator’s radar, particularly around the role the industry will play in ensuring that consumers understand the conditions of the rebate and the capabilities of the battery they are buying.
“We need to ensure that …what [the consumer is] sold is what they’re going to get and it performs the way they their system is meant to work. So we will continue to work with relevant jurisdictions to ensure that the sale practices are meeting the consumer needs,” Power said.
“What we would ask is, if there any reports of bad behaviour, these are put forward to the [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] and relevant state and territories bodies so that action can be taken quickly.
“If we find that retailers, installers are signing false and misleading statements as part of the STC [rebate] claim, we will remove these players from the market if they continue to do that behaviour.”
Power says retailers and installers will also be expected to fully brief customers on the requirement of the rebate for their home battery to virtual power plant compatible – and the options available, if they did choose to join a VPP.
Concerns were also raised in the webinar around some VPPs being limited to certain brands of batteries, and the complications this may cause for installers and consumers.
“You really need to understand those contractual arrangements that you may have with a retailer to sign up for those [sort of VPPs],” Power said.
“So please ensure, before you do that, you really get a key understanding of how those arrangements work … and what your get-out clauses are as part of those [VPPs], as well.
“If we see some poor behaviour here… these are the types of things we definitely would want to pass on to our Commonwealth other entities such as the ACCC,” he said.
“If we’re aware of some contractual arrangements that are clearly misunderstood or going to be misunderstood by consumers, those types of things should be made very clear to the Clean Energy Regulator or the department, so we can pass those relevant kind of consumer concerns on to the relevant commonwealth and state territory authorities that can look further into that.”
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.
