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20 June 2025

Updates to Specifications under Project-based Activities (PBA)

The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has completed reforms for project-based activities (PBAs) in the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program.

PBA in the VEU program can support bespoke energy projects which result in verifiable energy savings. This approach involves the direct measurement of energy consumption and is designed to credit a wide range of technologies upgrades for business.

Updated versions of the VEU Measurement and Verification Specifications Version 8.0 (the ‘M&V Specifications’) and VEU Benchmark Rating Specifications Version 2.0 (the ‘BR Specifications’) have been published. These changes have come following stakeholder consultation that identified opportunities to improve and expand the activity. The specification updates are effective immediately.

Key changes

The M&V Specifications have been updated to:

  • Introduce five new methods under M&V that have simplified methods to calculate greenhouse gas emissions reductions, including:
  1. Electrification direct measurement method prescribes a retrofit isolation approach to simplify the energy savings calculations and reduce dependency on gas measurement of existing equipment.
  2. Direct measurement of solar PV method allows projects to utilise direct measurement to determine energy savings for behind the meter solar projects.
  3. Retrofit isolation for non-seasonal motors and rotating equipment method simplifies the energy measurement and calculation approach for retrofit isolation upgrades not affected by seasonal variation.
  4. Weather normalised whole of site electricity measurement method prescribes a fixed method to simplify the calculation of electricity savings for projects affected by seasonal variation (i.e. weather).
  5. Weather normalised whole of site gas measurement method prescribes a fixed method to simplify the measurement and calculation of gas savings for projects affected by seasonal variation (i.e. weather).
  • Streamline the existing M&V method, including:
    • Expanding the option for accredited providers to use prescribed statistical approaches to account for non-routine events.
    • Increasing flexibility by specifying approaches that account for missing or erroneous data with a corresponding reduced accuracy factor.
    • Revising the measured energy requirements to support practical data collection approaches.
    • Simplifying the application of decay factors for projects with multiple energy conservation measures.

The BR Specifications have been updated to:

  • Align with the M&V method by introducing forward creation of certificates for up to 10 years. This change will also introduce a persistence model to account for the declining performance of an upgrade, will remove the benchmark factor that was applied for annual creation, and revise the emissions factors to match the M&V emissions factors.
  • Expand the types of premises eligible to participate in the method through NABERS to include residential aged care, retirement living, warehouses and cold stores, schools, retail stores, NABERS Energy Performance Indicator and Future NABERS Energy rating tools that are developed excluding pilot rating tools.
  • Revise PBA timeframes to better align with NABERS processes.
  • Updating the approved NABERS tools for energy calculations.

The updated M&V Specifications (V8.0) and BR Specifications (V2.0) can be found at: Industry project-based activities

Next steps

The department is also undertaking further work to make changes to the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (Project-Based Activities) Regulations 2017 (the ‘PBA Regulations’) to support future growth and certificate creation in VEU. These changes will build on the reforms currently in effect that are listed above and enable further streamlining of existing methods and support the future development of new approaches under PBA.

Stakeholders are advised not to make any decisions related to further Regulatory changes until final Regulations have been approved and published.

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Page last updated: 20/06/25