Extending the Victorian Energy Upgrades program
Our popular Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program will be strengthened to ensure households and businesses can continue to drive down their energy bills with discounts on energy efficient electric appliances.
We will introduce legislation to extend the VEU program to 2045, along with other reforms, to support more Victorians to move to energy saving electric appliances and slash their energy bills.
The current VEU legislation ends in 2030 and the proposed extension will provide long-term certainty for industry investment and help households electrify as the state works towards net zero emissions by 2045.
Victorian Energy Upgrades Strategic Review
We are undertaking a review of the VEU program to ensure it can better support Victorians to reduce their energy bills by switching to electric in the future – this review will be conducted over the next two years.
To give industry certainty while the review is being undertaken, we will set interim energy savings targets for retailers for 2026 and 2027 instead of the usual five year period. The next long-term targets will be determined by recommendations from the review.
Under the proposed reforms, the Essential Services Commission will have strengthened enforcement powers, expanding their oversight from accredited providers to include oversight of installers as well.
Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate prices
To lower the price of Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates (VEECs), the requirement for certificates to be created by 31 January for the previous calendar year will be removed – this will give energy retailers more time to acquire certificates and reduce demand.
When a household or business gets a discount for the installation of an energy efficient appliance through the VEU program, the accredited providers create VEECs, which are then sold to energy retailers to meet annual energy savings targets set in Victorian legislation.
The proposed reforms to the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Amendment (Energy Upgrades for the Future) Bill 2024 will be finalised in 2025.
Page last updated: 15/10/24