It’s official. The Clean Energy Council will continue to be the product listing body for solar panels and inverters under Australia’s Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) – but not everyone is happy.
This is an important role. The SRES is the mechanism that delivers Australia’s solar rebate. In order for solar panels and inverters to be eligible for the rebate (and some government incentives), they must be on the CEC’s approved products list at the time of installation. Some Distributed Network Service Providers (DNSPs) also require solar systems to have CEC-approved products in order to receive permission to connect to the grid.
The clean energy regulator said yesterday its decision was the end result of industry consultations and consideration of applications; There were two of them – one of them was the CEC.
This is not business as usual for the CEC
During the consultations a number of complaints were raised against the CEC; These include long delays in product approval, problems with process transparency, lack of technological progress and high fees.
The regulator has stated that the organization needs to make a number of improvements, including:
- Faster application processing times.
- Technology improvements to improve data quality and visibility during application processing.
- To assist applicants when additional technical assessment is required and to track application progress.
- Improved technical support to industry by employing more engineers.
In addition, increased transparency is required; Cover:
- The approval process.
- Application status updates.
- Risk-based sampling and audits of solar products.
- Maintain accurate status of solar product approvals, suspensions, delistings and recalls.
- Fee structure.
A happy and (very) cranky reaction
CEC Executive Director Kane Thornton welcomed the announcement and said the application contained a detailed plan for program improvement.
“…and we have already taken steps to drive improvements, including improving the user experience through our online product listings, and we have already doubled the capacity of our product team and are actively working to hire more staff to meet the unprecedented demand. “”
Not everyone is happy with the news. Glen Morris from Smart Energy Labs didn’t mince his words:
“What was the Clean Energy Regulator thinking in giving the CEC the right to continue its slow and sloppy service after a slew of complaints were lodged during the so-called ‘consultation period’?” he said. “How you can allow the CEC to manage the list of clean energy approved products is just crazy.”
The path was long and had many winding turns
It took 4 years to get to this point. So where did it all start?
The then Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor, ordered a review of the SRES by the Clean Energy Regulator back in 2020. Topics to be examined included the CEC’s role in the accreditation of solar installers and designers and the approval process for panels and solar inverters.
In 2022, the Clean Energy Regulator held a public consultation to nominate an organization to publish inverter and solar panel product lists under the SRES. If there is no nomination, the CEC would remain the responsible body. But 89% of respondents wanted the regulator to appoint a product listing body.
In July this year, the Clean Energy Regulator proposed appointing the CEC to continue in this role. A further consultation followed, which concluded in August. This consultation received 175 submissions, raising key concerns similar to those raised in 2020. However, the regulator stated:
“The CER believes these key issues have been addressed and can be managed through regular reporting, measurement against key performance indicators and process reviews.”
The CEC is also the administrator of the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC). As far as accreditation of installers is concerned, this role was transferred to Solar Accreditation Australia earlier this year – the CEC decided not to apply for this role to continue.
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