Issue 73 – March 2025

Welcome to our March newsletter

Battery activities have continued to be a key focus for the IPART team over the last few months. We have been busy visiting battery installation sites and assessing data on battery installations. Since battery activities started on 1 November, over 1.5 million PRCs (Peak Reduction Certificates) have been created from approximately 1,500 BESS1 implementations.

In this edition we look at battery implementations and how to make the most of the Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS).

We also cover upcoming events, Rule changes and recent updates.

We appreciate your continued input and engagement as we work together towards a more sustainable and secure energy future.

Best Regards,
IPART ESS Team

Batteries update

We started visiting battery installation sites in December to identify issues and improve compliance within the PDRS scheme. Additional issues and insights have come to light through your email enquiries, implementation audits and data collection. We’ll share what we’re seeing at our battery information session on Thursday, where we’ll be joined by AEMO and the Building Commission, whose staff have also started inspecting battery installation sites.

Homeowners we’ve spoken with have been impressed with their new batteries and the ability to monitor their energy storage in their phone app. They also appreciate the discounts being passed on under the scheme. We are generally seeing good compliance with PDRS requirements. Monthly reporting has been working well; thank you to ACPs for providing good quality data and being responsive to our data queries.

One thing we are hearing is that installers are wanting to be paid more quickly for the battery installations they are doing on behalf of ACPs. If you’re an ACP, it is important to make sure your installers have a good understanding of how the PDRS works, especially for those installers who may be used to working in the Commonwealth Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).

There are also things ACPs can do to help streamline the process. A reminder that you can:

• Proactively arrange for audits of certificates as you are approaching your unaudited certificate creation limit (if applicable).
• Apply to increase your certificate creation limit, providing you can demonstrate good, ongoing compliance.
• Think about undertaking pre-registration audits, even if you have an unaudited certificate creation limit, particularly if you are doing large numbers of implementations.

You should also ensure your installers know what evidence they need to collect and have systems in place to check this. We developed the PDRS evidence requirements following consultation with industry and consideration of the specific risks associated with battery installations. In most cases there is flexibility around how you can meet the evidence requirement, with examples provided in the PDRS method guide.

Latest news

The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) is asking for submissions for its ESS consultation paper. Closing date for submissions is Friday 4 April. Watch the recording of DCCEEW’s recent information session and Q&A.

DCCEEW recently updated its household webpages for upgrades to hot water, air conditioning, install a battery and VPPs, for example adding links to third party comparison sites. These changes mean we need to update the consumer fact sheets ACPs must provide to their customers. We’ll let you know when new versions are available.

PRCs from 2023 will expire on 31 October 2025, after which they cannot be transferred, forfeited or voluntarily surrendered. Check the vintages of your certificates at the Registry of Certificates or directly in TESSA. Note, Scheme Participants may surrender expired 2023 vintage PRCs against their liability for the 2024-25 PDRS Compliance period, however, these must be transferred into the relevant account before they expire. These PRCs will not be eligible for surrender against future targets. Find out more on our website.

Remember you need an electrical licence to install heat pump water heaters. Plumbers cannot rely on a Disconnection Reconnection Certificate when replacing an existing electric resistance or gas hot water heater with a heat pump water heater. You will need to include electrical licence details when registering certificates in TESSA for these jobs.

We have received some reports of installers allegedly staging hot water implementations. ACPs need to carefully verify evidence provided by installers for heat pump water heater implementations. Remember, ACPs are responsible for the conduct of their installers. Penalties may apply. We recommend you:

• check photo evidence of installations
• keep a register of serial numbers and check for duplicates
• run customer satisfaction checks
• identify unusual installations and do site visits.

We have received some reports of ACPs using material developed by other ACPs without permission. ACPs seeking to use another ACP’s material in an application to IPART (for example training manuals) should ensure they have permission. Find out what copyright means here.

Recapping recent updates

Here is a summary of recent updates. For more details, see our What’s Out Now page.

We have released our 2024 performance report, evaluating how we tracked against our KPIs.

ACPs must provide make and model data of batteries and new inverters for BESS1 implementations when registering certificates (PRCs) and in monthly reporting.

A recent change to the TESSA portal is the accreditation status of ACPs is now displayed, as active, suspended or cancelled. A reminder that details about TESSA changes can be seen on the TESSA latest updates webpage.

A PDRS Rule change was published by DCCEEW in December 2024, including updates about heat pump water heaters, DER registrations and BESS1 inverters.

The Minister for Energy has granted load exemptions from the ESS and PDRS for the 2025 ESS compliance period and the 2024-25 PDRS compliance period.

Please contact us at essregulator@ipart.nsw.gov.au if you have any questions about recent updates.

Looking ahead

On Thursday 3 April we’re running a battery information session looking back on the first 5 months of BESS1 and BESS2 activity. We’ll hear from the Building Commission NSW and AEMO, and talk about what we’ve been seeing and hearing with battery implementations. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

We are planning to end offline payments for certificate registration and have sought feedback from ACPs who have used this facility to inform our approach. Stand by for an update.