Selling Energy Savings Certificates is not the same as selling STCs. There is no clearing house, no single national registry price, and not every installer is permitted to create the certificates in the first place. The people who trade ESCs are Accredited Certificate Providers (ACPs), and their buyers are traders and the retailers who must surrender certificates each year.
If you already know STC trading, the logic transfers: create, validate, transfer, settle. What differs is who holds the rights, how prices are quoted, and what the contract needs to say. This article walks through the sale from creation to cash, and what to check before you commit your volume to a buyer. If you need the background first, start with what the Energy Savings Scheme is.
Step one: be the right party
ESCs are created by an ACP. If you are not accredited, you assign the right to create certificates to one, and the ACP pays you or discounts the customer. If you are accredited, you create the certificates yourself in the scheme registry once the activity is complete and the evidence is in order.
Two parties often get this wrong:
- The installer who has been discounting jobs on the strength of ESCs, without a signed agreement with an ACP
- The ACP who creates certificates without the customer’s documented consent
Both end up in a dispute that costs more than the certificates. Get the assignment and consent paperwork right on day one.
Step two: create, then transfer
Once the evidence is complete, the ACP creates the ESCs in the registry. They are then recorded in the ACP’s account, and transferred to the buyer. At that point the buyer owns them and the contract’s payment clock starts.
A typical sequence:
- Activity complete, evidence collected
- ACP lodges the creation and the certificates are registered
- ACP and buyer agree a price and quantity
- ACP transfers certificates in the registry
- Buyer pays within the agreed terms
Timing depends on the scheme’s processing and on the buyer. Ask any prospective buyer how long between transfer and payment, and get the answer in writing.
How the price is set
ESCs trade on a negotiated basis, through brokers and direct contracts. You will usually see:
- Spot. The price for certificates available now
- Forward. An agreed price for certificates you expect to create later, useful if you quote jobs weeks ahead
The penalty rate that retailers pay for a shortfall acts as a ceiling in effect, much as the $40 clearing house does for STCs. Within that, price moves with the gap between the target and the supply of certificates. For pointers on finding a current number, see ESC price in NSW. For the PDRS side, the peak reduction certificate price answer does the same job.
A worked example
An ACP creates 400 ESCs from a month of commercial lighting upgrades. They compare two offers (figures are illustrative):
| Buyer A | Buyer B | |
|---|---|---|
| Quoted price per ESC | $27.50 | $26.80 |
| Fees | 1.5% brokerage | None |
| Payment after transfer | 14 days | 2 days |
| Gross | $11,000 | $10,720 |
| Net after fees | $10,835 | $10,720 |
Buyer A pays $115 more, but 12 days later. If you are carrying supplier invoices and wages against those certificates, the faster payment can easily be worth more than $115. Net dollars and the date they arrive both matter, a point we also make in our rate card guide.
Contract terms that matter
Read these clauses before you sign:
- Price basis. Fixed on transfer, or reset on payment?
- Payment terms. Days from transfer, and the payment method
- Rejection or clawback. If the regulator later finds a problem with certificates, who bears the cost?
- Fees. Brokerage, admin or registry charges, stated as a dollar or percentage figure
- Exclusivity. Are you tied to one buyer for all volume?
- Volume. Are there minimums or tiers?
Our certificate trader checklist was written for STCs, but nearly every line applies here.
GST and invoicing
A registered ACP selling certificates typically issues a tax invoice with GST. Some buyers issue a recipient-created tax invoice (RCTI) on the seller’s behalf under an agreement. The rules are the same ones that apply to STCs, and our RCTI, GST and ABN guide is a good primer. Confirm your own situation with your accountant.
From the desk: Do not sell certificates you have not yet validly created. A forward sale of ESCs against jobs that are not yet complete, with a strict delivery date, can leave you buying certificates at a worse price to fill the contract if a project slips. Keep forward commitments below your confirmed pipeline.
Compliance follows the certificates
The buyer will rely on your evidence. If the scheme administrator audits an activity and finds the evidence lacking, the certificates can be challenged. A good buyer will pre-check what it can, but it cannot fix a missing document after the fact. Store what the method requires, in a form you can produce quickly.
Who buys, and why it matters
Two kinds of buyer dominate. Liable retailers buy to meet their own obligation, often through brokers. Traders buy to resell, and carry the price risk between the two ends. A trader can usually move faster, because it is in the market every day, while a retailer may buy in larger blocks on a schedule.
For a small ACP, a trader is normally the practical route. For a large one, a direct contract with a retailer can improve the price, in return for scale and predictable delivery. Whichever you pick, ask who the buyer will on-sell to and whether your certificates are ever pooled with those of other sellers in a way that affects your risk if one batch is challenged. A buyer that cannot answer plainly is telling you something.
Keeping the registry clean
Treat the registry like a ledger you reconcile weekly. Match every creation to a job number, every transfer to an invoice, and every payment to a bank line. Small ACPs lose money most often through unreconciled certificates sitting in an account while someone assumes they were sold. A one-page weekly check, done by the same person every Friday, prevents most of it.
What to do next
- Confirm you hold the right to create certificates, or that your ACP agreement is signed
- Collect two or three written offers and compare net dollars and payment dates
- Check contract terms for clawback and fees
- For your STC volume, see the pricing page for today’s published rates, and the partner program if you want a steady settlement relationship on that side