Consultation on requirements for water heating and space heating and cooling activities

The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (the department) has released a number of revisions to water heating activities (activities 1 and 3), and the space heating and cooling activity (activity 6) under the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program since May 2023 via:

• the making of the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Amendment (Electrification and Home Energy Rating Assessment) Regulations 2023.
• the release of Victorian Energy Upgrades Specifications 2018 – version 15.0 (VEU Specifications) in May 2023
• the release of Victorian Energy Upgrades Specifications 2018 – version 16.0 (VEU Specifications) in December 2023
• the release of Victorian Energy Upgrades Specifications 2018 – version 17.0 (VEU Specifications) in July 2024.

These heating and cooling activities under the VEU program are critical to supporting Victoria’s electrification transition across Victorian homes and to support Victorian consumers to reduce their energy bills. 

We have received feedback from accredited persons and scheme participants on a range of issues relating to the administration of these activities. We have also identified a few areas where changes to the administrative requirements of the activities are needed to reduce the risks of these activities delivering poor outcomes for consumers and undermining the integrity of the VEU program. 

Our consultation paper

We released a consultation paper in October setting out our proposed amendments to our guidance, record-keeping requirements, and forms in response to this feedback, for the water heating activities (activities 1 and 3), and the space heating and cooling activity (activity 6) in response to issues identified.

Consultation closed 3 November 2024.

We have released updated guidance, record-keeping requirements, product application requirements and forms for water heating and space heating and cooling activities (activities 1, 3, 6 and 44). 

We considered stakeholder feedback in finalising our guidance and record-keeping requirements to strike the right balance between protecting the integrity of the program and promoting compliance amongst participating businesses.  

Submissions that gave permission to be published can be viewed in the resources tab of this page.