After long delays in releasing the outcome of the VEET review, the Victorian Government announced last week that the VEET scheme will continue in 2015 with a reduced quota and finish at the end of the 2015 compliance year. The market reacted to some final certainty by an increase in the VEEC price. The VEEC creation rate has been low, and in fact the scheme administrator has made downlight globe replacement stricter.
In more detail
The scheme will have a reduced target of 2M VEECs in 2015 (down from 5.5M over the last three years) – this is better than the worst case scenario – there was a real possibility it would go to zero at the end of this year.
The current weekly creation rate is higher than needed to meet the 2M quote in 2015, which suggests the price could drop back. Thankfully the ESC (who administer the VEET scheme) recently announced that electricians would be required to do any 21C (down light lamp only) upgrades – this protects the scheme against the situation that occurred with the Standby Power Controllers where free products flooded the market and smashed the wholesale VEEC price down to $11.
We expect the wholesale price to remain fairly steady until the election in November. There is the opportunity for the Labour government, if elected, to reinstate the current quota and continue the scheme for 2015-18 period.
Wattly will continue to work with contractors and manufacturers and energy consumers over next 18 months to do commercial and industrial lighting upgrades. The current price results in a reasonable rebate of 10-30% of the project costs for commercial and higher for residential lighting upgrades.
Here is some of the press.
- Announcement – http://www.energyandresources.vic.gov.au/energy/about/legislation-and-regulation/energy-saver-incentive-scheme-management/esi-review
- Governments Claims Reducing Bills – http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/9996-coalition-to-reduce-power-bills.html
- Counter View – http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/5/21/smart-energy/vic-govt-axes-energy-efficiency-scheme
