How a VEEC is created, registered and actually sold

How does a certificate get from your job to a retailer?

1. A retailer has to hand some inThe Act calls the buyers "relevant entities". In plain terms they're energy retailers above a size threshold, and every year they have to hand in (surrender) a set number of certificates. That obligation is the only reason a certificate's worth anything.
2. An accredited person creates itOnly an accredited person (AP) can do it (s16). You get one certificate per tonne of emissions saved, which the Act calls abatement. The job has to be done before 1 January 2046, and the certificate created no later than six months after the end of the year the saving happened.
3. The regulator checks it and registers itThe AP pays the $4.35 creation fee. The ESC, which runs the scheme, checks the certificate with its risk-based assessment tools and then registers it. Registration isn't automatic.
4. It gets sold, then handed inIt's transferred through the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) Registry to retailers, traders or other APs, and they all need a registry account. The retailer hands it in by 30 April for the previous calendar year.

Certificates expire six years from the date of the job, so nobody can sit on them forever.

Why are there only so many buyers?

Under s3(1), a buyer (a relevant entity) is someone who sells electricity or gas to customers, buys in the energy for those sales in a way the Act counts (a "scheme acquisition"), and goes over one of three thresholds.

• 5,000 or more Victorian customers
• Buys in 30,000 MWh or more of electricity that way
• Or buys in 350,000 GJ or more of gas that way

Smaller retailers aren't in the scheme at all. So there's only a limited number of buyers, and you could name them. That's part of why the price moves the way it does. This isn't a big market with thousands of buyers and sellers.

Does a job that saves less than a tonne get anything?

Yes, if it's close. If a job saves at least half a tonne but less than a full tonne, you can still create one certificate (s18(1A)). That rule works in your favour.

So small jobs aren't rounded down to zero. If a job saves just under a tonne, this rule is the difference between a certificate and nothing. That matters more on small jobs than on a ducted changeover.

Can a certificate be traced back to who made it?

Always. Every certificate has a unique ID, and it starts with the accredited person's registration number. So it traces straight back to whoever created it, for its full six year life.

Under s21(2) it also has to carry the customer's name, the date of the job, the job details, the date of the saving and the date it was created.