Introduction of cold room activity

16 August 2021

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has released updated regulations and specifications which provides for the commencement of a new cold room activity under the VEU program from 17 August 2021. You can apply to become accredited for this activity from 17 August 2021.

New cold room activity 

The new cold room activity has been introduced with three upgrade scenarios as described in the following table:

See the activity guide for further information on activity requirements and how to calculate Victorian energy efficiency certificates (VEECs) for a given cold room upgrade.

Overview of our regulatory approach

This new activity is tailored for a range of replacements or installation upgrade scenarios. If your cold room upgrade activity is of a complex nature or linked to other upgrades, we recommend that you consider the suitability of the measurement and verification method for project-based activities.

Becoming accredited

You can become accredited for this activity by completing the cold room activity application form and submitting the form via the VEU registry.

Installer requirements

All cold room upgrades must comply with legal requirements and be undertaken by personnel holding the following licenses:

• An RAC01 refrigerant handling licence (where any handling of refrigerant is required)
• An electrician licence registered with Energy Safe Victoria (where wiring work is undertaken)
• A plumber licence registered with the Victorian Building Authority (where plumbing work is undertaken).

Victorian energy efficiency certificate (VEEC) assignment

A VEEC assignment form must be completed by the energy consumer to create certificates under the program. You must provide a copy of your VEEC assignment form to us as part of your application for accreditation/approval to undertake this activity.

Activity assessment

Products to be installed under the program’s cold rooms activity do not need to be listed on our register of products. Given the complex nature of these upgrades and the potential VEEC volumes involved for a single installation, we aim to conduct a detailed assessment of upgrades submitted for VEEC creation.

You will be required to collect and maintain documentation for each upgrade which must be provided to us upon request. All evidence required for each of the activity scenarios is outlined in the activity guide.

Activity documentation

We have released documents for undertaking these activities, including:

• cold room activity application form
• cold room activity VEEC assignment form template
• cold room activity guide which includes evidence requirements for the three upgrade scenarios for this activity

Feedback from stakeholders

We have worked to deliver clear and risk based administrative requirements to support program participants in delivering new cold room activities under the VEU program. We are interested in feedback from stakeholders on the requirements we have released to further refine our requirements as appropriate.

We propose to hold a workshop with interested stakeholders to gather this feedback.  To assist us in planning for this, we would like to assess stakeholder interest in attending such a workshop.  If you would like to participate in a workshop to feedback on this activity, please let us know by emailing veu@esc.vic.gov.au before 31 August 2021.

You can also provide us feedback on specific elements of the activity guide by emailing  veu@esc.vic.gov.au.

Where to get help

If you have any questions on this program update, please contact VEU Support on (03) 9302 1310 or veu@esc.vic.gov.au.