Welcome to the 2019 to 2020 National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting training video series.
This series is delivered by the Clean Energy Regulator and aims to help you report under
the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007, also known as the NGER Act.
This video will cover emissions and energy sources and activities under the NGER Act.
There is a range of terms used in this video that have a specific meaning, including Clean
Energy Regulator, NGER, Determination, NGER Act, EERS, and Regulation.
To learn what each of these means, please refer to the video ‘Introduction to the
Clean Energy Regulator and NGER’, from the NGER training video series, available by following
the links at the end of this video.
This video will cover five topics relating to the emissions and energy sources and activities
you need to report, including: facilities
scope 1 emissions scope 2 emissions
energy production, and energy consumption.
In the first part of this video, we describe what you need to report in EERS at the facility
level of your corporation.
Any company that meets the NGER reporting thresholds must access EERS.
There are two types of thresholds that determine which companies have an obligation under the
NGER Act: facility thresholds and corporate group thresholds.
The facility thresholds are: 25 kilotonnes or more of total scope 1 and scope 2 emissions,
and production or consumption of 100 terajoules or more of energy.
The corporate group thresholds are: 50 kilotonnes or more of total of scope 1 and scope 2 emissions,
and production or consumption of 200 terajoules or more of energy.
All reportable emissions and energy data for any facility that triggers the facility threshold
or belongs to a corporate group that triggers the corporate group threshold, must be included
in an NGER report.
These reports are due to us by 31 October each year.
For each facility, your report must contain data about the facility’s
scope 1 emissions scope 2 emissions
energy production, and energy consumption
for the period of time it was under the operational control of a member of the corporate group.
If your corporate group only had operational control over a facility for part of the year,
you will only need to include data for the part of the year that you had operational
control.
If you are a Reporting Transfer Certificate holder you must report on the facility for
the entire time that the transfer certificate is in place.
If you are a 22X reporter, you must report for the entire time you had operational control
over the facility, while the 22X agreement was in place.
Only emissions and energy production and consumption from specific activities and sources are included
in your report.
For energy production and consumption, this means any above-threshold fuels or other energy
commodities listed in Schedule 1 of the Regulations should be included.
Emissions are reportable for a facility if there is a relevant method available in the
Determination, to tell you how to estimate the amount of emissions from a listed fuel
or energy commodity and the related reporting thresholds are met.
In the second part of this video, we describe what data you need to report for scope 1,
or direct, greenhouse gas emissions.
A scope 1 emission of greenhouse gas, in relation to a facility, means the release of a greenhouse
gas into the atmosphere as a direct result of an activity or series of activities, including
ancillary activities, that constitute the facility.
Under NGER, reportable scope 1 gases include: carbon dioxide
methane nitrous oxide
sulphur hexafluoride hydrofluorocarbons, and
perfluorocarbons.
An example of scope 1 emissions resulting from a reportable activity is the carbon dioxide
released when coal is burned at a power station.
The Regulations divide reporting on scope 1 emissions into categories:
fuel combustion coal mining
oil or gas extraction carbon capture and storage
mineral, chemical and metal products hydrofluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride
gases, and waste.
The information you must report depends on the category your activity falls into.
Examples of information generally required include:
nominating the source of the emission Identifying the method used from the Determination
to estimate the emissions the total quantity of greenhouse gas emitted
from the source, and any other matters to be identified, or MTBIs.
NGER requires different MTBIs in reporting for different facilities.
This information is important to users of NGER data, so diligence should be exercised
in preparing and reporting complete and accurate MTBIs.
The MTBIs will vary depending on: the source your scope 1 emissions come from,
and the method you have used.
Requirements about what MTBIs should be provided are set out in schedule 3 of the Regulations.
Examples of MTBIs include: whether a mine is gassy or non-gassy
kilometres of pipeline length location information
tonnes of a product made, and facility-specific emission factors.
In the third part of this video, we describe what data you need to report for scope 2,
or indirect, greenhouse gas emissions.
Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions are those released to the atmosphere from the consumption
of an energy commodity that was produced elsewhere.
Regulation 2.24 sets out the meaning of scope 2 emission.
In relation to a facility, scope 2 emission means the release of greenhouse gas into the
atmosphere as a direct result of one or more activities that generate electricity, heating,
cooling or steam that is consumed by the facility but that do not form part of the facility.
The Determination sets out two methods for measuring scope 2 emissions from ‘the consumption
of purchased electricity’.
For example, a power station burns coal to power its generators and in turn creates electricity.
Burning the coal causes scope 1, or direct, greenhouse emissions to be emitted.
If the electricity is then supplied to the grid and then consumed by a factory to power
its machinery and lighting, the consumption of the electricity is considered to generate
scope 2, or indirect, emissions.
Scope 2 emissions are reportable if electricity consumed at a facility is purchased from
the main electricity grid of a state or territory a network other than the main grid, or
direct connection from the producer.
Please note that electricity produced and consumed at the same facility does not give
rise to reportable scope 2 emissions.
The emissions from the production of electricity at a facility are reported as scope 1 emissions.
In the fourth part of this video, we describe what data you need to report for energy produced
at your facility.
Production of energy, in relation to a facility, means either of the following:
the extraction or capture of energy from natural sources for final consumption by or from the
operation of the facility or for use other than in the operation of the facility, or
the manufacture of energy by the conversion of energy from one form into another form
for final consumption by or from the operation of the facility or for use other than in the
operation of the facility.
All energy from fuel production must be reported.
There is no minimum threshold for reporting energy from fuel production, and production
should be reported at the point the definition of production is first met.
For energy reporting purposes, fuels and energy commodities must be categorised as either
primary or secondary.
The definitions of primary and secondary are as follows:
A primary fuel or energy commodity is one that is extracted or captured from natural
sources with minimal processing.
It cannot be produced from another primary fuel or energy commodity or from itself.
A secondary fuel or energy commodity is one that is produced by converting energy from
one form, usually a primary fuel or energy commodity, to another form for consumption.
Schedule 1 of the Regulations denotes whether each fuel or energy commodity is primary or
secondary.
However, some are listed as nomination required.
These require the reporter to determine and nominate whether they are primary or secondary
at the facility.
Examples of energy production as a result of the conversion of energy from one form
into another, include the combustion of black or brown coal to produce
electricity injection of processed natural gas or coal
seam methane into a pipeline to produce ‘natural gas distributed in a pipeline’, and
refining of crude oil into petroleum products such as gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, or liquefied
petroleum gas.
Each time you produce a fuel or energy commodity listed in Schedule 1 of the Regulations, you
must report that fuel or energy commodity as energy produced at the point it first meets
the definition of produced.
In the fifth part of this video, we describe what data you need to report for energy consumed
at your facility.
Consumption of energy, in relation to a facility, means the use or disposal of energy from the
operation of the facility, including own-use and losses in extraction, production and transmission.
In other words, each time a fuel or energy commodity listed in Schedule 1 of the Regulations
is consumed at your facility, the consumption of that fuel or energy commodity must be reported.
Note that ‘use’ includes the consumption of energy in the conversion of one form to
another form (i.e. energy transformations).
Under NGER, energy conversions occurs whenever a fuel or energy commodity listed in Schedule
1 of the Regulations becomes another fuel or energy commodity listed in Schedule 1.
In some cases, conversion may not involve any change to the chemical composition of
the fuel or energy commodity.
For example, when you inject ‘coal seam methane that is captured for combustion’
into a transmission pipeline it is considered to have been converted to ‘natural gas distributed
in a pipeline’.
Even though there may have been no change to the chemical composition of the energy
commodity in this instance, this is considered to have been conversion from one energy commodity
to another under Schedule 1 of the Regulations.
As such, you would need to include the consumption of ‘coal seam methane that is captured for
combustion’ to produce ‘natural gas distributed in a pipeline’.
This video is from the 2019 to 2020 NGER training video series.
This series aims to help you in your obligations to report under the NGER Act.
To access these videos, visit our website at www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au.
After accessing the Our systems – logins and guidance tab, click Learn more under the
Emissions and Energy Reporting System subheading, then on the sidebar, navigate to Tools to
assist you, then Training videos.
These videos are supplemented by written guidance documents, also available on the Clean Energy
Regulator website.
After accessing the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting tab, click on Forms and resources,
then on Guides and factsheets in the sidebar.
These documents give more technical or specialised insight into a wide range of specific topics
around reporting under NGER and using EERS.
We also provide calculators to support reporters, available on our website through the National
Greenhouse and Energy Reporting tab under Forms and Resources.
These calculators help reporters produce accurate NGER reports, and include those for assessing
corporate reporting obligations, estimating uncertainty in emissions, and estimating emissions
from solid waste and wastewater operations.
For more information or help with reporting under the NGER scheme, please contact us by
calling 1300 553 542, emailing us at reporting@cer.gov.au or visiting our website at www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au.
This video has been developed by the Clean Energy Regulator to assist persons to comply
with their reporting obligations under the NGER Act for the 2019 to 2020 reporting period.
This video should be viewed in conjunction with the NGER Act and supporting Regulations
and Determination.
Changes to legislation may affect the information in this video.
The examples used in this video are for illustrative purposes only, this video is not intended
to provide legal advice.
If persons have concerns or questions about the application of legislation in their particular
circumstances, they should seek professional advice.