Home heating and cooling program ramps up

Victoria’s Home Heating and Cooling Upgrades (HHCU) program is expanding to include landlords and renters, and is looking for suppliers to join the program.

The program offers rebates to replace gas, electric and wood heaters with reverse-cycle split systems in low-income and vulnerable households. It plans to reach 250,000 households over the next three years, improving the thermal comfort of occupants, reducing their energy consumption, and helping the state transition away from gas.

The program, which started earlier this year and was initially only open to owner/occupiers, is now being expanded to landlords and renters. This includes rental properties that are unoccupied. And as the number of approvals ramps up, there will be greater demand for suppliers to instal the equipment.

Accordingly, the government is seeking more qualified suppliers to join the program through an expression of interest (EOI).

Approved suppliers will provide an end-to-end service and ensure appropriate licensing of retailers and installers, consumer protections and work quality. Service will entail the installation of new split systems in accordance with program requirements, the decommissioning of old systems, and undertaking of switchboard upgrades (if applicable).

Applicants must fulfil the following criteria to become an approved supplier:

• Have been operating in the heating and cooling industry for at least two years
• Do not have any prior prosecutions registered with Energy Safe Victoria or the Victorian Building Authority (or an equivalent authority in another Australian jurisdiction) in the past year
• Do not have any prior prosecutions registered with Worksafe Victoria (or an equivalent authority in another Australian jurisdiction) in the past three years
• Have in place occupational health and safety management processes that meet applicable legislative requirements
• Have in place an appropriate internal customer complaint-handling procedure that is fair, efficient and transparent
• Are able to provide financial statements for the previous two years to confirm sound financial status
• Are insured to the required value as set out by Solar Victoria in the “Approved Supplier EOI documentation”.

The Expression of Interest is available on the Buying for Victoria website by entering the number T2001-0387 or by clicking here. Suppliers will need to register their business’s profile with Buying for Victoria to download the expression of interest documents.

The expression of interest will close on Thursday, October 21, 2021, 2pm (AEDT); however, it is expected to open again for more suppliers later in the year.

Solar Victoria recently hosted a webinar to outline the process for becoming an approved supplier for the Home Heating and Cooling Upgrades Program, including tips for responding to the Expression of Interest documents. Click here to view a recording of the webinar.