Meeting your obligations as a scheme participant

As a scheme participant, you must meet your obligations under the Energy Savings Scheme (ESS) and/or Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS). 

Most entities will be a scheme participant in both the ESS and PDRS. Refer to Role of scheme participants for more information about how the Act identifies an entity as a scheme participant in either scheme.

Meeting your ESS obligations

If you have ESS obligations you need to complete the following steps.

Stepper group

  1. Lodge an ESS Annual Statement in TESSA by the due date

    Completing an Annual Statement involves:

    • calculating your individual energy savings target
    • nominating any shortfall to carry forward to the next year
    • surrendering energy savings certificates (ESCs) equivalent to your combined individual energy savings target and shortfall carried forward from the previous year.

  2. Pay any shortfall penalty by the due date

    This applies if you didn't fully meet your combined individual energy savings target and the shortfall carried forward from the previous year through surrendering ESCs.

Meeting your PDRS obligations

If you have PDRS obligations you need to complete the following steps.

Stepper group

  1. Notify us of your PDRS non-market acquisitions and exempt electricity loads

  2. Notify us of your Individual Liable Demand in TESSA by the due date

  3. Lodge a PDRS Annual Statement in TESSA by the due date

    This involves:

    • calculating your individual certificate target
    • nominating any shortfall to carry forward to the next year
    • surrendering peak reduction certificates (PRCs) equivalent to your combined individual certificate target and shortfall carried forward from the previous year.

  4. Pay any shortfall penalty by the due date

    This applies if you didn't fully meet your combined individual certificate target and the shortfall carried forward from the previous year through surrendering PRCs.

Detailed guidance on meeting your obligations 

We provide detailed guidance on meeting your obligations in our Compliance Guide - Scheme Participants, our Auditing scheme participants page and instructional videos available via our TESSA for scheme participants page.

Identifying your liable acquisitions 

Before lodging your ESS Annual Statement and PDRS Individual Liable Demand you need to identify your liable acquisitions. Your liability is based on these. We provide detailed guidance on liable acquisitions in the Compliance Guide - Scheme Participants.

Determining if you need an audit 

You will need an audit if:

More information