Transcript for Round 2 information session

July 2, 2026

50m 18s

Liz K Richmond (DEECA)   0:03
Okay, so we're now recording the session and transcribing it. So good afternoon and welcome to this information session on the Community Housing Upgrades stream of the Energy Efficiency and Social Housing Program. As I said, my name is Liz Richmond and I am the Senior Program Manager of the Energy Efficiency and Social Housing Program, which we will call EESHP.
because we love an acronym in government. Please note that the audio and video functionality has been disabled for all attendees for the duration of the presentation. It will be re-enabled at the end of the session for the Q&A, and we will also stop recording at the end of the presentation for the Q&A.

If you have any questions throughout the presentation, please use the Q&A function in Teams. We will address as many questions as possible at the end of the presentation and take all other questions on notice to be addressed in the updated frequently asked questions that we have on our website. And we will hope to do that by early next week.
All participants will also receive a link to the session.

That includes the recording.

So firstly, I would just like to start by acknowledging country. I wanted to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. For me, that is the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to elders past and present. I would also like to extend that respect to the traditional owners of the lands where you are all joining this information session from today.
Our government is committed to working in partnership with traditional owners as distinct rights holders to land, sea, river and sky country. We will ensure that First Peoples are at the centre of decision-making processes that directly affect them and that they have the opportunities to benefit from the energy transition.

As we will discuss today, this is an inherent part of the design of the Community Housing Upgrade stream. We will continually be guided by traditional owners and First Peoples communities now and into the future, who have expressed a strong interest in investing in renewable energy to deliver the interests and meet their communities' cultural, spiritual and economic needs.
I'll now pass over to Lily Jamieson, our property advisor for the program.

Lily Jamieson   2:30
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Lily Jamieson and I'm from RSM Australia. We have been engaged as independent probity advisor to oversee this application process. I will just be quickly running through what our role is as probity advisor and then some of the obligations that you as applicants have during this process. So our role is really to monitor, advise and report on the process, and to ensure that it's conducted in accordance with government requirements and the key probity principles. So we work really closely with the Program team to ensure that probity is embedded throughout all activities and documentation, to ensure all parties are being treated fairly and equally, and importantly, we want to make sure that you as applicants have confidence in the process. So there are a number of obligations and requirements of applicants, some of which are highlighted on this slide. So the first is really around business as usual. We appreciate that some of you might have existing relationships or engagements with DEECA.

It is really important that during any of those engagements, there's no discussions held regarding this process.

Please take note of the approved method for communication. All communication must only be directed through this approved method. Please do not seek or obtain improper assistance from DEECA staff, any associate or any areas of government in preparing your application. No lobbying of DEECA or government employees. Avoid anti-competitive conduct and if you do have any conflicts of interest,
please do declare them. It's really important that you carefully read through and take note of the lodgement requirements, including the deadline for lodging your application. Technical issues do often occur, so please give yourself ample time to submit your application. Look out for any clarifications that might be issued to make sure that you don't miss anything.

And importantly, the assessment panel will be assessing your submission based on the information that you have included. So please be explicit in your response. Address all of the assessment criteria and don't leave any room for assumptions. If you do have any probity, concerns or questions, our contact details.

are on this screen. Thank you very much.

Liz K Richmond (DEECA)   4:48
Thanks so much, Lily.

So today we have a number of speakers joining me who will give you all the information that you will need to help you with your application for the Community Housing Upgrade Stream. As I mentioned, my name is Liz Richmond. I am the Senior Program Manager for the ESH program. I will provide you with an introduction to the ESH Program and the Australian Government's Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative. I will also provide you with some policy context around the minimum Energy Efficiency Standards. I'll then pass on to Ash from Solar Victoria, who will run you through the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program and how it relates to this grant opportunity.
Vivek Kotak is a Senior Project Officer in my team and he will be leading on the Community Housing upgrade stream. Vivek will go through information on what the Community Housing upgrade stream is, the eligibility requirements, the assessment criteria, the application process and timing.

We'll then pass over to Daniel Chadwick, who's joining us as Manager of Energy Efficiency Programs at Homes Victoria. He will share some key lessons for you that Homes Victoria have learned through the delivery of the public housing Program to date. Vivek will then highlight the Solar for Community offering from Solar Victoria and how it relates to this grant opportunity. We will then conclude and open up for questions and answers.

Next slide, please.

So to start with, the Australian Government's Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative, or SHEPI, is the funding that has upgraded to help, sorry, the funding to help upgrade social housing residents access the benefits of the energy transition across Australia. The upgrades aim to reduce pressure on energy bills for social housing residents as well as help improve residents' quality of life by keeping homes warmer in winter and cooler in summer. The SHEPI Program has already provided $71.7 million that's been matched by Victorian government to fund energy efficiency upgrades in Victoria. And in April this year, the Australian government announced additional funding of $120.3 million for Victoria to support energy efficiency upgrades in an additional 8000 public and community housing properties, contributing to a total of 60,000 upgrades by June 2029.

So the delivery of the SHEPI Program at an Australian government level is delivered through the EASHP Program at the Victorian government level with additional investment from the Victorian government. We are set to deliver home upgrades across 11,000 homes, social housing homes from June 24 to June 27. EASH aims to significantly enhance the energy performance of Social Housing properties by delivering multiple upgrades in each property. These upgrades will assist in reducing energy bills for residents as well as supporting better health outcomes by providing more comfortable homes.

The Program also supports renters to shift to electric appliances to either reduce or eliminate gas bills. Currently, the EASH Program has upgraded 2,300 homes to be all electric out of a target of 5,000 homes. And this has been happening since June 2024.
So in terms of policy context, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about the minimum Energy Efficiency Standards. These were introduced to ensure rental properties meet a baseline level of energy performance. This helps improve thermal comfort for tenants, reduces energy bills and cuts greenhouse gas emissions.

It's part of a broader strategy to tackle energy poverty and support climate targets in Victoria. Community housing organisations are currently exempt from the MES compliance, but the expectation is that MES compliance will become mandatory for all rental properties, including social and community housing.

This means community housing organisations need to plan ahead to avoid future compliance risks and costs. So we would suggest that designing each upgrades under this upgrades Program to meet MACS compliance now actually avoids costly retrofits later and positions your organisations ahead of regulatory, positions your organisations well in terms of the regulatory changes that will be coming.
This slide shows you the range of minimum standards under the MEES. All of these items are eligible under the Community Housing Upgrade Stream. When you're looking through this table, you'll see that the term backstop is used. And basically what this means that even if the regulatory trigger hasn't happened to replace the cooling, it will need to be upgraded anyway. So effectively, there is a hard deadline on the installation of efficient electric reverse cycle air conditioners, and that deadline is the 1st of July 2030. I encourage you all to read the upgrade guidelines, which are on our website for the Community Housing Upgrades Stream, as we've taken into account the MES compliance in what is included in the upgrade guidelines. And this will give you a bit more detail. You can also see from our guidelines that to be eligible for a grant under the Community Housing Upgrades Stream, you must participate in the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program.

So I'll now pass on to Ash from the BEU Program to give you an overview. Thanks, Ash.

Ash P Laing-Smith (DEECA)   10:53
Perfect. Thanks very much, Liz, and thanks as well to Vivek for having me here today. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Ash Laing Smith. I'm a policy officer here in the Victorian Energy Upgrades team at DEECA. Today, I'm going to talk about what the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program is, or VEU, will be the acronym.

that I use, what's available to you as community housing providers, our recent ceiling insulation activity, and I'll outline how you can access these upgrades. So a little bit about the VEU. The VEU is the Victorian government's flagship emissions reduction program. It's been operating since 2009 and it will be in existence until 2045.

At its core, the VEU is what will help reduce the upfront cost of energy upgrades.

The subsidy available through the VEU is applied through accredited providers. These will be the people that arrange the upgrade on your behalf. And so you won't have to pay the full cost of the upgrade in advance.

For community housing organisations, the key benefit is that it will translate into lower energy bills for tenants. So this will be particularly for heating, hot water and electricity. It also supports electrification of your properties. So this could involve replacing older gas appliances with more efficient electric options. And importantly for this grant program,
that we're here to hear about today, you're expected to use the VEU wherever possible. So this is how we stretch our funding further and deliver more upgrades. And there's some stats on the slide there just to demonstrate the impact of the VEU, but some of the really cool figures that we have are 93 million tonnes of carbon emissions avoided to date.

Over 2.6 million households and businesses have participated. And I'm going to touch on the last point there, where we have over 30 different activities or upgrades available under the program. So if we could kindly move to the next slide.

Fantastic. So in terms of the upgrades available, we've got a full spectrum, but I'll just focus today on the ones that are most relevant for community housing. So the main one we have available is heating and cooling. So this is particularly for reverse cycle air conditioners, which will allow you to replace gas heating where that's in place. Hot water is another big upgrade available. So moving to a heat pump hot water system is a lot more energy efficient and a key part of electrification.

We have a range of other upgrades that improve the performance of the building itself. This includes things like draught ceiling, insulation, or shower heads as well. And lastly, there is also rebates for electric appliances. And this would be sort of most notable in induction cooktop upgrades.

In practice, we'd consider our community housing organisations to focus on a combination of heating, hot water and building efficiency upgrades, because these will deliver the biggest and most noticeable impact for tenants.

If we can move on to the next slide, thanks, Vivek. So also just going to touch on the recent ceiling insulation activity that we've introduced under the VEU. This is particularly important for older community housing stock. Ceiling insulation is a very high impact upgrade that you can do. It was recently brought in in April this year.

and it has been limited to public and community housing until October this year, when it will open up to all eligible Victorian homes. The really cool thing about insulation, it significantly improves thermal comfort in the house. So this will help keep homes warmer in winter and cooler in summer. And this will also reduce the need for heating and cooling, which will help lower energy bills for your tenants.
Importantly, there's almost 60% of homes in Victoria have no or under no insulation or are under insulated. And so we believe many households could see significant energy bill savings of up to $400 per year by simply upgrading insulation.

Where the VEU comes into it, it will help bring down the installation cost of insulation. So this will make it much more accessible for your properties. I'd lastly just like to acknowledge that there's a strong focus on safety and quality with the insulation activity. So we've put a very rigorous accredited installer training and audit process in place.

As well, the products approved for insulation will meet strict product standards that will ensure their safety and performance.
And I'll just move on to the last slide here, which will just discuss how you can access a VEU upgrade.

So when an eligible upgrade is completed, so that's things like installing the heating and cooling or insulation, it generates what we call a VEEC, short for a Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate. This certificate is what creates a subsidy and reduces the upfront cost to you. Now throughout this process, the accredited providers that you engage will manage this whole process. So you won't have to get too involved in the VEICs, but it's just important to be aware of what they are and how they work to lower the upfront cost of the upgrade for you. So for what you need to do, if you would like to get involved, read up on what's available. So there's more information on our website about the different products that I've touched on today.

And then the next step would be to speak to an accredited provider. So accredited providers manage the process and that this includes the paperwork and compliance. Importantly, we don't advise you to shop around, get multiple quotes and find an AP that best meets your needs. As I mentioned before, the AP are the people that will help install the upgrade so they'll confirm your property eligibility and they may have preferred installers or trades people that they work with as well.

And I'll just mention as well, these incentives available under the VEU can also be stacked with other incentives, such as STCs for hot water or solar, which will help you stretch your funding even further. I note there is, you can't stack your incentives with some Solar Victoria rebates, which I believe will be discussed later today. So I hope that's been a useful overview of the VEU and how it can help you upgrade community housing to deliver benefits to your tenants and reduce emissions. Please ask any questions in the chat and I'll stick around for the Q&A at the end. And I'll now pass over to Vivek.

Vivek Kotak (DEECA)   17:06
Thanks, Ash. Much appreciated. All right, so as Liz said, my name is Vivek Kotak. I'm the Senior Project Officer within the Community Housing of Grant Stream Team or the issue team within DEECA. Just was going to go through all the details now for round two of the Grant Stream, some of you will be quite aware of these. So essentially the new grant stream for community housing opened on Wednesday last week and applications close Friday on the 21st of August. And we encourage all applicants to read the application guidelines for information on who is eligible to apply.

which is essentially a community housing organisation that can pass on all the energy statements achieved by the upgrades and to the renters and confirm that the legal owner or manager of the property and has the right to carry out the project in agreement with the owners of the property. We have also expanded the eligibility from Rail 1 to include registered community housing providers.
sorry, non-registered community housing providers, registered charities that provide community housing and Aboriginal trusts. I'll touch on that a little bit further down. Just like in round one, we have $9 million, $9 million funding available for an average of $18,000 per property.

across the portfolio. Community Housing Orgs can make an application for multiple properties as per the last round. And with built in flexibility into the grant, for example, you may want to fund 20,000 of upgrades to one property and only require a grant of 16,000 to upgrade another property. So it sort of averages out to 18,000 for instance, as long as the average grant is $18,000. And there will be a budget template that all applicants must fill out, which provides an automatic sort of calculation to assist with this as well.

We encourage applications for multiple properties, but note that we do have Program priorities that will be applied in the event of an oversubscription, which we experience for rent one. This includes our priority renter groups, which I will touch on as well and property age preferences, which I'll also cover in the next slide. Organisations can apply in multiple rounds. There will be a total of three rounds. This is round two. There is a third round planned as well. So obtaining funding under this round one or two does not really out for round three, for instance, which will, which is so currently planned for next year at this stage.

Okay, so a bit more about the eligible upgrades. So we have a range of eligible upgrades with a list, which you can see there on the left. And it's a list of eight, and each property that is included in the application must receive at least two of these upgrades, I will point out that the water efficient shower heads are only eligible when a hot water heat pump is installed, and gas abolishment is eligible when full electrification has been achieved in the property under the grant as well. We also have priority rented groups and different co-contribution amounts, which you can see there on the right. And you will see the groups listed on the slide there. Properties that do not include a property rented group, such as a vacant property, will still be considered for funding, but you will need to provide a larger cash contribution, which is the 20% per contribution for other renter groups. DEECA also reserves the right to request evidence that confirms the renter type from the applicant or a successful applicant.

Just noting that there is a calculator for the co-contribution amount provided in the sort of mandatory DEECA templates, the budget template that all applicants must fill out, so that would automatically calculate the co-contribution, depending on who the renter you identify for a particular property. So, yeah, this will assist you in.

calculating total grant as well that you would be able to perform. So it's a pretty important template to note.
Okay, so a bit on the property eligibility itself. So for the properties that can be included in the application, there are a few eligibility criteria. Each property should be homes that are intended to be retained for 10 million.
If the property is leased or you have the intention but cannot confirm the 10 years, you have the ability to explain this in the application form.

We are seeking houses that are detached, attached, and apartment buildings for stories or less. Properties that are older than 2005 are preferred. You can include younger properties in your application, but older ones will have the preference. Homes built prior to the introduction of the minimum matters ratings in
2005 are likely to have poorer performing thermal envelope and that's why we are sort of really focused on those. Lastly, properties such as rooming houses are eligible for funding, but you will need to confirm in your application that the full savings achieved by these allocates will be passed on to your renter.

So, it's pretty important to bring me else.

Okay, I'll touch on some of the key changes for round two. We have made some slight tweaks based on feedback and our intention to expand the applicant eligibility. So a summary being that expanded applicant eligibility importance to who can...
participate in this case. And as noted, we've included non-registered community housing logs that are that are registered as charities or Aboriginal trusts, which will enable us to the Program to reach to Aboriginal housing providers, VEUlnerable renters.

We're currently excluded due to provide due to a provider registration status, and then of course we we have added some waiting around the preference added for induction cooktops. This preference already exists within our upgrade guidelines, but we're also going.
Bring them into the application guidelines as well, and I think we already covered the shower heads, so...
Sorry, pardon me. The 4 stories or less wording has been tweaked a little bit from the last application guidelines. This change was in response to several questions that we received during round one. So we've just made it very clear that it's less than four stories and what that means.

And we also will have the option for a head contractor for the Community Housing org to appoint a head to choose a head contractor pathway. I will touch on that in slides following.

And within the upgrade guidelines, we've made some very small clarifications in on that as well for ceiling installation. We've added guidance that references the VEU Program and product registry. We have also strengthened the draught and gap section by adding safety and quality assurance requirements, including pre-draft proofing cheques where gas used and supplied.
And finally, we've clarified that battery energy storage systems are still not eligible under this under SLPB activity, you could say. Overall, these changes are intended to improve compliance, support safety, and deliver better energy water savings outcomes as well. Together, they should help.

Community Housing org, it says proposals more consistently of, and us as well.
Okay.

I mentioned the Victorian Government head contractor. So for round two, we're introducing a new optional pathway, which we hope will make it easier for organisations to participate. Applicants will have the option to use the Victorian Government's appointed head contractor. This is the same contractor currently delivering energy efficiency upgrades across public housing.

is part of the ESH program. So they're already very familiar with the requirements and the types of upgrades being installed. And DEECA has worked with the head contractor and developer a sort of standard deed for community housing orgs to use, which will have the same terms and conditions that are in current.

as the public housing stream. So really the key benefit here is that this contractor already has established systems, supply chains and delivery processes in place. So for applicants, this can significantly reduce the time and effort involved.

in procuring and setting up delivery arrangements, particularly for those community housing orgs where, you know, you have much smaller teams, this could be a really good pathway and sort of, you know, just having the one contractor to work with that can coordinate various upgrades for your properties. It can provide a level of confidence around delivery for us and especially around timelines and coordination and meeting our own requirements as well, because they're already doing this work at scale. So that said, this is completely optional. You can still choose your own contractors and deliver a model if that better suits your organisation.

Some of the community housing orgs have longstanding relationships with their contractors. So absolutely, we recognise that you, you know, you would want to choose to go down that pathway. The important thing is to think about what approach best aligns with your internal capacity, as I said, whichever pathway you choose.

You need to clearly outline that to us and outline those roles and responsibilities and how the project will be delivered in your application.

Here's how the two options would work in practice. You've sort of got the own contractor pathway on the left and the head contractor pathway on the right. So the key, really the key differences here being that the community housing all would need to indicate the intention to use the head contractor and enter into a separate contract with the head contractor if you're successful during the application process. And just to be clear, applicants may choose to use the head contractor or may engage their own contractor. The use of the head contractor is optional here. We will also make these slides up so you can now.

go through those steps, but yeah, it's hopefully very clear cut. Some of you also noted that we have organised separate, we've organised a separate head contract information session, which will be held on the 9th of July, next Thursday at 2pm, and we will pop a link in the chat so that you can sign up for that or otherwise you can go to our webpage as well.

Kate, so.

I think I was just going to go through the assessment criteria really quickly. So the applicants will be assessed across three weighted criteria and a value for money assessment. Applicants must articulate how their application aligns with the objectives of the ISH Program and the expected benefits to their renters.

These are direct questions in the application form. For project delivery, applicants will need to complete the mandatory DEECA project plan template and the mandatory budget template, which is in Excel format, which I mentioned earlier. Other attachments which support this criteria include a renter engagement plan, a risk management log and project delivery schedule as well. We have provided templates on the website for applicants to use, but these last three templates are not mandatory as applicants can use their own formats here, their own sort of
Engagement plans that they have probably developed in the past. But I'll touch on that in the next slide for you. The last weighted criteria is your organisation's and project partners' capability and capacity to deliver the energy efficiency upgrades. Yeah, this is a really important one for us to understand who you are looking to work with and their experience, especially when it comes to VEU as well and sort of being able to tap into those incentives. That would be pretty important.

So, this includes outlining the project roles, relevant project management experience, staffing commitments, skills, expertise of personnel, and providing letters of support from project partners as well, where applicable businesses or traditional learning groups. After eligibility and weighted criteria assessments,
Applications will undergo a value for money review that considers their total assessment score alongside projected delivery costs and expected rent benefits. Projects that offer the strongest balance of cost impact and benefits will be prioritised for rent funding.
I've just, yeah, just noted, I think the date for the head contractor, by the way, was incorrect in the slides, but I think we've popped that in the chat now. So please have a look at that. It would be for next Thursday, the 9th at 2pm.

All right, just going on to the supporting documents, like I mentioned in the previous slide, there are two mandatory templates, that's the project plan and project budget. The other templates that are on our website are optional for use, as noted, but applicants are expected to upload some form of the risk management log, renter engagement plan and project delivery schedule for us to help with their assessment. The application form has a function at the end for you to upload all of those documents separately. The website also includes the funding agreement templates. We ask you to also have a review of that and, you know, if there are any
preliminary questions, please do let us know. But we do expect for you to review that as part of this application process. The application guidelines and application, and sorry, and upgrade guidelines are also on the web page. So please do get across those and encourage all of us to definitely read through those.

Okay, so with the local jobs first policy, it's important that we do highlight this. It is a legislative Victorian government framework designed to ensure that public expenditure actively contributes to job creation, local job creation, workforce development and the growth of the local industry.

Local jobs first applies automatically when the value of a project, including grant funded activities, meets specified monetary thresholds. For regional Victoria, the policy is triggered for projects valued at $1 million or more, while in metropolitan Melbourne, the threshold is $3 million or more.

We encourage applicants to keep this requirement in mind, especially when you're looking to seek to partner with contractors and providers, and yeah, when building your application as well.

So just a quick note on the checklist before applying. Obviously, read the application guidelines and upgrade guidelines carefully. Cheque that you and the properties you want to include are eligible. Prepare your responses to the application form. Complete the mandatory attachment documents and other elements.

reporting documents. Just a note on the application form that you can sort of save your responses and come back to them over time. So that is a functionality, so you don't have to do it in one sitting. And yes, please also review the funding agreement and its terms and conditions as well.

And all these can be found in our web pages one.
Right, so on our webpage, you will find a button to begin your application or return to an existing application, as I said. For any support in the application form, please contact the grants info e-mail that you see there. For any questions about the program, please contact them.
issue e-mail address that you see at the bottom of that slide. The cutoff for questions is Friday 14th of August, one week before the applications close. We have a FAQ webpage which will be updated regularly. Actually, it will be updated weekly in response to questions sent to the issue e-mail. So please keep an eye out for those.

there's always questions come through and then we update the FAQ for everyone to have a look. So do keep refreshing that. And I think that's most of all I've covered. So I'll now pass on to Daniel from Homes Victoria, who's, as Liz said, has been
Program managing the public housing rollout and he's going to share some insights, lessons learned from the public housing upgrades part of the program.
Reardon.

Daniel Chadwick (Homes Victoria)   36:08
Thanks a lot, Phoebe.
Right, so hi everyone. As Vivek and Liz mentioned, my name is Daniel Chadwick, so I'm responsible for the delivery of each, particularly the public housing element within Homes Victoria. So to start off with, just from our experience, this has honestly been a hugely rewarding Program to work on.

You know, every upgrade has the potential here to make a home more comfortable, reduce cost of living pressures, improve health outcomes, and support Victoria's transition to all electric homes. So with today, we just wanted to share some 5 lessons that we've learned through delivery of these upgrades across public housing.

Hopefully these lessons will help you with your own delivery and hopefully make that a little bit smoother.
So look, the first lesson that we've got up on screen surrounds sort of renter engagement and really trying to make this a much frictionless process. So look, as you already know, consent rates dramatically improve when communication is personal, simple and empathetic.

We'd really recommend not to rely on a single letter in the mail. Really, the best results come from multiple touch points. It could be a letter followed up by an SMS, followed up by a call, and where appropriate, a door knock just to introduce the program.
We've also discovered that many renters have misconceptions about all-electric homes. Some renters worry that gas is cheaper, and this is all completely understandable. So having appropriate responses ready for these sort of critical first interactions is really important.
You may choose to inform the renter that, you know, the Victorian default offer for electricity had reduced this year, or that electric appliances like heat pumps are honestly a much more efficient technology.

It's really going to be helpful to ensure that anyone that is working within the front line there does have some form of FAQ that they can refer back to.

Finally, to really better support renters, we've always found is to let renters know exactly when trades will arrive, how long those works will take, and what their experience is going to be like during the installation.

We've developed a lot of collateral here to be able to support renters through those steps and generally try to keep the upgrades to sort of a maximum of three days.

But look, as you know, good communication reduces complaints, improves consent rates, and really leads to a much better experience for everyone.

Look, the next aspect is on the upgrades and knowing that that support is so critical for the renter journey. So these upgrades often change the way people use their homes and it's so important that the people who are delivering these works have the soft skills to be willing to talk with renters and demonstrate how they use their appliances. You know, many renters might have never used an induction cooktop before or a reverse cycle air conditioner for heating before.

So it's so critical that we are there and explain to renters and demonstrating their exact use. One example that really stuck out to us was within another maintenance Program where a gas cooktop was replaced with an electric one. Unfortunately for that renter, that renter wasn't made or wasn't demonstrated exactly how to use the appliance. During that period of time, there was the renter didn't feel comfortable in being able to ask the trade how to do it and for several days was unable to cook until finally having gotten in contact with them their local housing officer. So it's so critical that we're building that capacity up within our trades to be able to have those conversations and really leaving the renter feeling comfortable that they know how to use these appliances and to use these appliances in the most efficient way.

Really, like we were saying before, we've developed a whole suite of collateral to leave behind for renters as easy to read guides that explain how to use their appliances to maximise their benefits. This could be simple information like what is the ideal temperature for heating and cooling, but really, it's key to give this documentation a lot of thought. And be critical is what's the most important bit of information we want to be able to convey to renters. The technology itself is very smart and has a lot more options than probably what a standard gas

wall furnace did. So it's really just important to go, what is going to be, what information can I provide to renters in a really simple way, and that's not overly complex.

But really, these small investments really make a huge difference to getting the best outcome for renters.
Next slide, please.

So next one is choosing the right property mix. So this is really critical in order to find out exactly how you're going to deliver the program. Look, it's probably obvious here that homes with the older the home most likely the poorer the energy performance is going to have, and it will, by upgrading at home, is going to really deliver the greatest benefit from electrification. But really, not every property contains the same delivery risk. What we found is that freestanding homes with a standard 63
and electrical supply are generally much simpler to upgrade. But by comparison, if we start to think of multi-unit developments, whether that's through an estate or a walk-up building, it now becomes significantly harder. You may have to now look
at what that electrical supply upgrades are needed there. You may need to upgrade a group metre board, may need to be the consumer mains itself, or if it's a large enough development itself, it may mean that a substation might need to be installed. So give good thought to what these properties are, try and reduce your risk by focusing as much as you can on standalone dwellings. There certainly are ways to electrify medium density homes, but it will take a bit more time in order to assess that properly and determine what's needed.
And look, the other one there is probably just on owners corporations. So it just adds another layer of complexity, particularly around how that, what is the roles and responsibilities there between and within the owners corporation. You may require
approval it may require from all the other members of the body corporate or it may require that works may need to be undertaken to those neighbouring homes as well.

So just continue to give good thought, focus on those standalone homes wherever you can.
Now, next is on to maximum demand calculations. So this is one that we as a delivery team really had to learn through in the hard way as we were going through the program. So what we find, and it's not too uncommon within the industry, but particularly contract can frequently overestimate electrical maximum demand calculations. It's not, and it's not necessarily from nefarious reasons. It is just on the basis that it is obviously better to be conservative. But the Australian standards that are sit behind how maximum demand calculations are made are exceptionally conservative and don't really give the most realistic picture as to how much electricity that home is really using or it needs. So when thinking this through,

Make sure that wherever possible that the electrician that's undertaking these assessments for you are really trying to understand what is the real operating demand of their appliances that have been installed rather than putting together a really simple theoretical maximum load based on other calculations. Most homes simply are able to be upgraded to all electric using a 63 amp or single phase
Circuitry, so you don't, it is very rare in circumstances where things like three-phase is required.

Look, finally, we've heard a bit here surrounding VEU compliance, so I won't speak too much to this, but it really is just to say that the VEU Program is like a fantastic Program and delivers brilliant results for us in being able to invest more in that.

But it is a significant administrative requirement. As mentioned here, trying to find APs that have good experience in managing this is really, really critical. For people who are, for organisations who haven't worked within the BEU program,
you've got to allow a sort of a significant amount of lead time for them coming up to speed. It is very easy and it's not too common for trades to be taking the level of evidence that's required here. So where possible, really utilise experience APs
If you're going to a head contractor or one of your own facilities maintenance contractors, make sure that they fully comprehend these requirements and give them a bit more lead time in order to get their systems up and running. But I hope that was helpful for everyone.

Vivek Kotak (DEECA)   47:24
Thanks, Daniel.
A lot of good insights there and just a note that we have worked with Victoria to create some collateral, again, collateral, especially around the plants use. That's also available for the community housing orgs should they wish to use it and, you know, obviously, should they be successful.

Yeah, we can provide that as well. We were going to have someone from the Solar Community Housing join us today, but unfortunately they are sick. So I was just going to quickly touch on this other offering for community housing. And before I do, I just want to note that whilst Solar PV is an eligible upgrade under the Community Housing upgrade stream,
The guidelines require that the applicant must not also receive grant funding or rebates from another government Program for the same installation. So, this means a community housing org must choose either to fund a solar PV install through ISHP, through the Community Housing Upgrade Stream, or through another Program such as Solar Victoria App cannot claim both for the same upgrade.
Now, the eligibility is very much aligned with our eligibility for Social and Community Housing, so not much to say there, except that the current rebate per property is $1400. It's a bit of a different application process, and so I think...
really, yeah, the key difference being that the rebate is capped for property.

through this offering. However, also, and one more thing to note with this is also Solar Victoria have expanded the property eligibility to new builds. So if there are community housing orgs out there that want to put on their new builds, then
Absolutely, this would be the option to go. And we do have the team has offered to take queries from Community Housing Works. So please e-mail the team directly if you've got questions. Unfortunately, we don't have someone here answering questions around the Program today.

However, you know, again, one other thing to note here is really that...
the opportunity to use the community housing upgrade stream to, you know, do all the electrification upgrades and then maybe tap into this to put the solar system on the property might be something worth considering for those that want to go down this pathway as well.

Page last updated: 08/07/26