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The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has removed Australian company Phenix Trading Pty Ltd from the NSW Government’s Energy Security Safeguard schemes for exaggerating the energy efficiency of freezers it installed in businesses throughout NSW and misleading regulators.

IPART has also rejected Phenix’s application to register 618,555 Energy Savings Certificates that were improperly created, worth an estimated $10 million.

Tribunal member Sharon Henrick said: “IPART investigated Phenix following intelligence sharing with the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Regulator (GEMS) in 2024.”

“IPART’s investigation revealed Phenix had improperly created hundreds of thousands of Energy Savings Certificates related to its sale of four-sided glass freezers,” Ms Henrick said.

IPART’s investigation found:

• Phenix relied on a falsified test report with exaggerated energy efficiency claims when creating Energy Savings Certificates for its four-sided glass freezers

• Phenix admitted to IPART it provided false information to GEMS in response to a requirement to produce a freezer for testing, when it falsely claimed it had no freezers left in stock to produce for testing

• Phenix then sold around 2,000 of the freezers

• Phenix used another company to obtain a new GEMS registration for a freezer and then re-labelled other freezers, which were not registered with GEMs, and installed the re-labelled freezers under the new registration.

“IPART works closely with other government regulators such as GEMS to identify misconduct” Ms Henrick said.

“We target our compliance efforts to identify improper conduct and share intelligence with co-regulators to deter misconduct. This is in keeping with our compliance priorities.

“While most businesses in the Energy Security Safeguard Schemes do the right thing, where we uncover misleading or fraudulent conduct we take action to protect the integrity of the Schemes.”

Phenix may apply to NSW’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a review of IPART’s decision.

Further information is available on the Energy Sustainability Schemes website.

Media Contact: Mark O’Brien, 0428 975 091, media@ipart.nsw.gov.au