December 2025 meeting summary: VEU Industry Reference Group

Meeting date: 11 December 2025

The first meeting of the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) Industry Reference Group (IRG) was held on 11 December 2025. Several matters were discussed as follows: 

• welcome and introductions
• overview of IRG
• agenda items from members:
  • clarification on VEEC surrender figures 
  • oversized multi-head and incorrect system sizing 
  • VEU Portal API – address recognition issues current consultations. 

Meeting summary

Welcome and Introductions 

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting and introductions were made. 

The members present represent a strong cross-section of industry interests and that the objectives expressed by members in their introductions align well with the commission’s aims for the IRG. 

Overview of the IRG 

The IRG has been established to strengthen engagement with industry and to provide a structured avenue for feedback. Members’ insights will help identify industry considerations and emerging issues/risks. 

Discussions within the IRG must not provide any market advantage to members. No announcements or program decisions will be made in this forum. 

Following any program announcements, our traditional feedback pathways will continue to operate. We will continue to seek feedback via our engagement team at veu@esc.vic.gov.au. The IRG provides an additional forum in which we can hear from stakeholders. 

Scope and role

Policy development remains the responsibility of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (department), with the commission acting in its administrative/regulatory role. The commission engages with the department regularly and can pass on feedback or advocate where appropriate. 

The scope and structure of the IRG can be reviewed over time as needed. 

Meetings will be held quarterly, the next meeting will be scheduled in March 2026. 

Agenda items from members 

1. Clarification on VEEC surrender figures 

A member queried the difference between the publicly reported VEEC surrender rate and the published figures. The commission advised that there are multiple technical factors which impact the annual surrender calculation. Further communications will be released to explain this. 

2. Oversized multi-head and incorrect system sizing 

Members raised ongoing concerns about activity 6 – space heating and cooling system sizing practices, highlighting risks associated with systems being designed based on VEEC value rather than consumer need. This includes practices of over-sizing, under-sizing, and lost opportunities for better design (e.g. zoning). Several members noted that this behaviour can undermine consumer outcomes and the broader objectives of the program. 

The commission reiterated that industry intelligence and formal notifications are taken seriously, and that concerns about participant conduct can be reported anonymously at any time. While the commission could not comment on current investigations, members were advised that a consultation paper on activity 6 is proposed to be released by the Department in Q2 2026, and this topic is suitable for deeper discussion in future IRG sessions. 

3. VEU Portal API – address recognition issues 

A member reported some address recognition failures via the Application Programming Interface (API) in the new VEU Registry system. 

The commission advised these issues are being investigated and encouraged members to send through specific examples for review.