The Victorian Government is committed to reducing emissions across Victoria by transitioning all major government buildings, including health infrastructure, to renewable electricity.
From 1 July 2025, large public hospitals have been powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity through the statewide contract with the State Electricity Commission, supporting the Victorian Renewable Energy Target and Victoria’s goal of net zero emissions by 2045.
Most public hospitals meet the large site threshold of 40MWh per year and are now supplied with clean electricity, reducing building-related carbon emissions while maintaining reliable, uninterrupted care.
Importance of renewable electricity
Renewable electricity provides clean electricity with no direct greenhouse gas emissions thereby reducing harmful emissions from the generation of electricity from coal and gas fired power stations.
Reducing reliance on fossil fuels also means reduced impact from mining and drilling of natural and finite resources, providing broader benefits to the environment, local communities and the climate.
Victorian Renewable Energy Target
The Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) is a key action by the Victorian Government to cut emissions in line with the state’s climate action targets of net zero by 2045.
To achieve this, Victoria is transitioning to 95 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2035 which includes Victorian Government operational electricity use being sourced from one hundred percent (100%) renewable sources through the State Electricity Commission (SEC). This includes the State’s large public hospitals.
From the 1 July 2025, large public hospitals have been powered by renewable electricity through the statewide electricity contract with the SEC.
Renewable electricity in Victoria’s public health sites
Large sites, which are those that use over 40 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity in a 12-month period, are being powered by renewable electricity through the statewide electricity contract with the SEC. Across the Victorian government, large sites account for approximately 94 per cent of Victorian Government operations electricity consumption.
Most of Victoria’s public hospitals use more than 40 MWh a year. A large metropolitan hospital can use in the order of 20,000 MWh a year, a regional hospital can use 10,000 MWh and small rural hospitals, including aged care, can use between 1,000 MWh and 200 MWh.
Small sites, which are those that use less than 40MWh of electricity will not be provided renewable electricity through the SEC and are not required by Government to use renewable electricity. These sites may choose to voluntarily purchase renewable electricity. Within the health sector, community health, and accommodation units typically use less than 40 MWh a year.
The threshold for the provision of renewable electricity through the SEC is based on the electricity consumption of the site and not the health service. A health service may have both a large site (e.g., public hospital campus) and small sites (e.g., community health centre) within its control.
Uninterrupted operations and care
Renewable electricity in Victoria's large public hospitals means the electrical services within large public hospitals are being run on publicly owned clean, renewable electricity, significantly reducing their carbon emissions.
Any existing gas services will continue to provide thermal energy to the hospital and become the material source of building related carbon emissions. Existing gas usage and the transition away from this energy source is covered under Victoria’s Gas Substitution Roadmap, which is aligned with the overall State’s net zero target.
The facility operation and delivery of care is not affected by the provision of renewable electricity. Redundancies have been built into the SEC supply to maintain continuous electricity supply seven days a week.
Capital projects that increase existing site consumption above 40MWh
Capital projects that increase a facility’s use to over 40MWh should notify the health service, so they can request HealthShare Victoria investigate the potential to transition the facility to the SEC statewide electricity contract. This may mean that the whole site could then be powered by renewable electricity.
Carbon emissions from new hospitals
New infrastructure delivered from August 2024 is all electric, meaning facilities using over 40MWh will be powered by 100% renewable electricity. As a result, new all electric health facilities over 40MWh will have zero direct building-electricity related carbon emissions.
Due to the renewable electricity source, any energy modelling for large sites need to factor in that the reduction of electricity does not provide any savings in carbon emissions.
The remaining building related sources of carbon emissions are upfront and embodied carbon from the construction of the hospital and associated building materials, refrigerants and diesel used in emergency generators.
Continued focus on reducing electricity consumption
Hospitals should focus on reducing electricity consumption even if it delivers no carbon savings. Well designed buildings that minimise electricity consumption will reduce demand on the grid and lower the health services electricity costs. Additionally, well designed buildings improve whole of life outcomes, such as reducing risk of building services strain during extreme temperatures and improved occupant wellbeing by providing overall better thermal and internal comfort.
Projects are still required to meet the business-as-usual requirements of the VHBA Guidelines for sustainability relating to energy efficiency and can continue to utilise the sustainability budget for energy efficiency. It is important to ensure holistic consideration is given to building design and performance including climate change impacts, such as extreme temperatures, in conjunction with energy efficiency initiatives.
Additionally, projects must meet the 15% energy demand reduction target (excluding the contribution of solar) in the VHBA Net Zero Building Handbook for projects valued at $20m and above.
Installing solar panels on new projects
Providing behind the meter generation such as solar panels will reduce demand on the grid and lower the health services electricity costs.
Projects are still required to provide infrastructure for future solar panel installation as part of the base construction cost even if solar panels are not included in the delivery project scope. Projects may continue to use the sustainability budget to install solar panels.
Further information
The following links provide more information on the use of renewable electricity in Victoria’s public buildings:
If you have any further questions, contact the VHBA Sustainability team via email.
