The NSW Energy Savings Scheme (ESS) provides financial incentives to install energy efficient equipment and appliances in NSW households and businesses. Using more energy efficient equipment puts downward pressure on electricity prices for all NSW households and businesses by reducing electricity demand.
The Energy Savings Scheme was established in 2009 under the NSW Electricity Supply Act 1995 and has been highly successful at delivering energy and bills savings. Between 2009 and 2022, the scheme has supported projects that will deliver 48,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy savings by 2033. As of December 2022, the scheme has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 23 megatonnes. That equals the carbon emissions produced by the NSW transport sector in 2020.
Our aim is to deliver cost effective energy savings. We recently set more ambitious targets to help unlock additional energy efficiency opportunities in NSW. The Energy Savings Scheme has an energy savings target of 9.5% in 2023. This will increase to 13% by 2030.
Increasing the target will help make emissions abatement available at a lower cost to NSW households and business, as well as helping NSW to reduce emissions by 70% by 2035 and achieve net zero by 2050.
We set out how certificates are created and what specific activities are included as part of the scheme through the publication of the Energy Savings Scheme (ESS) Rule. This is updated on an annual basis. Recent changes have expanded the range of eligible activities.
The current Energy Savings Scheme Rule
The latest ESS Rule, published on 19 December 2023, commences on 19 June 2024. It includes transition arrangements to allow for the creation of energy savings certificates (ESC) using the previous ESS Rule, that commenced on 14 April 2023.
Until 19 June 2024, the 2022 ESS Rule applies.
The key changes in the 2023 ESS Rule include:
- New baselines and calculations to ensure energy savings from residential and small business hot water systems better reflect real-world savings.
- Adjustment of co-payments for residential hot water and addition of new co-payments for residential air conditioning and commercial hot water heaters. This is to provide best outcomes for customers.
- Transitional arrangements for those changes.
You can read more about the changes in:
You can also learn more about our consultation on the 2023 ESS Rule change by reading the:
Watch the hot water systems consultation webinar
We held a webinar on 19 September 2023 to give participants an opportunity to hear about the key changes and ask questions. This webinar explained the proposed changes to hot water systems activities in more detail.
If you could not attend or want to watch it again, you can find out more by watching the video or reading the presentation slides.
Get involved
We look forward to collaborating with industry through targeted research, stakeholder engagement, and prototyping activities. We will provide regular updates about these activities on our website and via email.
For more information about the Energy Savings Scheme, email us at [email protected].