Audits of Accredited Certificate Providers (ACPs)
Audits of Accredited Certificate Providers are conducted to:
- Validate information supplied during the application for accreditation phase
- Verify an Accredited Certificate Provider's ongoing eligibility
- Verify calculations carried out by an Accredited Certificate Provider in the course of creating ESCs.
Audit requirements vary between Accredited Certificate Providers. However, the majority are required to audit by the earlier of a set ESC registration limit or one year since the last DSW was submitted.
The ACP Audit Guide contains the framework for how we want auditors to prepare, perform and report audit assignments.
Audit Process
Audit Scopes for audits of energy saving certificate (ESC) creation, or proposed ESC creation detail the nature and scope of the services that are required to be provided by an auditor in undertaking these audits. They include:
- Verifying calculations carried out by an ACP in the course of creating (or proposing to create) ESCs
- Verifying an ACP’s ongoing eligibility, including record keeping arrangements, under the Energy Savings Scheme.
Before undertaking audits of ESC creation, or proposed ESC creation, auditors must upload a completed DSW Submission Form, and proposed sampling plan in TESSA . These documents must be approved by us before an audit can commence.
For pre-registration audits, the sampling plan is included in the List of Sites. For post-registration audits, auditors should export the implementation data that is the subject of the audit into an excel file and nominate which sites are subject to each tier of sampling.
DSW Submission Form - ACPs
The DSW Submission Form – Part A is completed by the ACP and uploaded in TESSA, which makes the form available to the auditor to complete. The auditor then completes Part B and submits the form in TESSA along with the proposed sampling plan.
Audit procedures to test compliance with ESS requirements are provided for the following methods (please also refer to section Relevant Documents below):
- Clause 7 - Project Impact Assessment Method (PIAM)
- Clause 7A - Project Impact Assessment Measurement & Verification (PIAM&V)
- Clause 8.5/8.6/8.7 - Metered Baseline Method (MBM)
- Clause 9.3 - Sale of New Appliances
- Clause 9.4 - Commercial Lighting Energy Savings Formula (Commercial Lighting)
- Clause 9.4A - Public Lighting Energy Savings Formula (Public Lighting)
- Clause 9.8 – Home Energy Efficiency Retrofits (HEER)
If you are submitting a DSW for any other method, you need to append your own method-specific scope items and submit in TESSA.
A template is provided below.
Previous versions of the Audit Scope are available on the Document search page.
List of Sites
The List of Sites is a template listing the implementations included in the DSW for pre-registration audits (completed by the ACP) and the proposed sampling plan (completed by the Auditor).