In a year where stay-at-home restrictions led to bigger power bills for many the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) has been able to help Victorians reduce their energy costs, whilst maintaining its objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

During 2020 the program delivered over 328,530 energy efficiency upgrades across 204,429 households and businesses. Participating households saved an estimated average of $229 off their annual energy bills, while businesses who underwent an upgrade could save an estimated $3,114 on average.

In 2020 the program:

• delivered an expected 5.5 million megawatt hours of electricity savings, and 591,000 gigajoules of gas savings over the upgrade lifetime.
• registered 6.053 million certificates to offset emissions generated by sales by Victorian retailers.
• provided employment to 220 accredited businesses and 4,700 trade professionals. 

Lighting upgrades continued to dominate certificate creation in the program, delivering 89% of certificate creations in 2020. Accredited providers pivoted away from residential lighting to business lighting – which includes lighting activities 27, 34 and 35 – resulting in a 34% increase with 855,180 certificates created from 2019 to 2020 for business lighting. A significant increase also occurred in water heating activities with a 58% increase in certificate creations from 206,223 certificates in 2019, to 356,322 certificates in 220.

DOWNLOAD THE 2020 VEU PERFORMANCE REPORT

Published 29 October 2021
Source: esc.vic.gov.au