As required by the VEET Act they have also released the Government Gazette “Notice of Intention to Declare a Discount Factor” and hence have put everything in place to introduce a discount factor for both Highbays and T8/T12 Fluorescent Lights from the 1st of January.

As suggested by EECCA they are proposing to implement the discount factor in two stages to give businesses time to adjust.  Initial change on the 1st of January 2018 and a further change on 1st of April 2018.

• Metal Halide, Mercury Vapour, and High-Pressure Sodium (eg highbays, floodlights, certain rectangular shop lights and some others)
  • DF: 0.85 from 1st January 2018 to 31-Mar-2018
  • DF: 0.7 from 1st April 2018
• Fluorescent T8/T12 (retail, offices, warehouses, factories, schools, etc)
  • DF: 0.9 from 1st January 2018
  • DF: 0.8 from 1st April 2018

Given that the government released the issues paper on the 18th of August and has included some of the recommendations from submissions to the previous issues paper, it appears highly likely that once the consultation process has been completed that the government will go ahead with this change.

The discount factor is a multiplier (default value of 1.00) for the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions and hence the proposed multipliers will reduce the VEEC quantity for upgrades from the lamp types above.  EG A typical MH highbay to LED receiving 17 VEECs will receive 0.7 x 17 = 11.9 VEECs from the 1st of April.

It isn’t clear from the consultation or gazette if the dates apply to the Activity Date (ie jobs completed by the dates above) or Creation Date (jobs submitted to the VEET portal by the dates above).  In the past, the types of changes have applied to the Activity Date.  We are seeking further clarity and will let you know once we hear back from DELWP.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Wattly for more information.  Below is the table from the Government Gazette and links to the consultation paper and Gazette.

https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/energy-efficiency/victorian-energy-upgrades