Energy Audits, Ratings & Certifications

An energy audit conducted to the Australian Standard by a qualified UtilityCap consultant can reduce your buildings' energy use, save money, improve productivity and provide opportunities to innovate.

What sort of energy efficiency assessment do you need? Australian Standard energy audits fall into one of three categories:

Type 1 audits (basic energy audits)

Provide a basic overview of your company’s energy consumption, and a broad estimate of energy savings available from opportunities with relatively short payback periods.  These audits are useful for smaller businesses, or to evaluate the broad potential to save energy at larger sites, if energy efficiency has not yet been assessed.

Type 2 audits (detailed energy audits)

Provide a more rigorous analysis of your company’s energy consumption. These audits will quantify potential energy savings based on detailed data and analysis of the specific equipment and operating conditions applying to each site. This level of audit also includes financial evaluation of opportunities (based on agreed financial criteria), which will help business owners prioritise the opportunities shown in the audit. For these audits, installation of additional measurement equipment is not generally required.

Type 3 audits (precision subsystem audits)

Are useful for larger businesses with specialist equipment, or companies with major production facilities. These audits focus on a major subsystem, such as boilers or compressed air systems, and involve taking additional measurements to quantify opportunities to a higher level of accuracy than less complex audits.

UtilityCap are here to help you navigate a clear pathway to a high performing and compliant facility while providing you with documented cost avoidance savings.  We have the tools and experience to help you meet your “Energy Ratings & Compliance” requirements. 

National Australian Built Environment System (NABERS)

NABERS can be used to rate commercial offices, shopping centres, apartment buildings, hotels and home. A whole building rating covers both the tenanted spaces and the base building, and is typically used in an owner-occupied building, or where there is inadequate metering to obtain a base building or tenancy rating.

Each of the NABERS tools has been developed to:

• Provide a credible and independent market-based benchmark

• Communicate environmental performance through a simple star rating

• Drive best practice through setting stretch targets meet the needs of industry, and

• Achieve real positive environmental outcomes.

NABERS for Apartments

Owners and operators of apartment buildings can save money by improving the energy and water efficiency of their building, but first they need to know how their building is performing. The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) has developed an assessment tool, which will deliver this information.

The new NABERS tool provides apartment buildings with energy and water ratings that indicate how efficient a building’s common areas are compared to other apartment buildings in Australia.

If you're interested in in using the tool, talk to your owners’ corporation and strata managing agent, start collecting common utility bills which will be used in the assessment and contact UtilityCap.

Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD)

The Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) Program requires energy efficiency information to be provided in most cases when commercial office space of 1000 square metres or more is offered for sale or lease. The aim is to improve the energy efficiency of Australia's large office buildings and to ensure prospective buyers and tenants are informed. The CBD Program is an initiative of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). It was established by the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010 and is managed by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy.

The benefits of investing in energy efficiency in the building sector are becoming clear - more energy efficient buildings will be cheaper to run and are likely to attract higher rents and property prices.

The CBD Program requires most sellers and lessors of office space of 1000 square metres to obtain a Building Energy Efficiency Certificate (BEEC) before the building goes on the market for sale, lease or sublease. BEECs are valid for up to 12 months and include:

The building's National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) Energy star rating

A tenancy lighting assessment of the relevant area of the building General energy efficiency guidance.