What are NGA factors?
The NGA factors are used to account for the emissions of various fuel sources in Australia. Over time, the factors have changed, as the electricity supply mix has changed. The increasing proportion of renewables, particularly in South Australia, means that when the factors are changed, the emissions associated with your building’s electricity use will go down. However, this does not mean that all buildings will receive a boost to their ratings. Sites that have a direct reliance on fossil fuels (natural gas and diesel) are at risk of having their rating slip.
How will the changes affect my building?
To provide additional clarity, the NABERS administrators have provided a prediction tool which can estimate the impact of the NGA factor changes on your building. It not only tells you what your building’s rating is now, but what it is likely to be in the future as the grid decarbonises (assuming your building’s energy mix remains the same as today). The tool can be downloaded from the NABERS website. If you want to discuss the results or are unclear about how to accurately fill in the form, please reach out to our services team.
My rating is predicted to drop – what can I do about it?
As Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” If your Buildings Alive Rapid Efficiency Feedback (REF) service does not already have electricity submeters and gas meter data integrated, please get in touch. Adding additional data feeds to REF makes optimising energy use much quicker and easier. If your building does not have adequate metering, we can also upgrade your REF service to our REF+ package, which can provide software-based metering and automated anomaly detection & diagnostics.
To find out more, please reach out to our customer engagement team.