What is a facility under NGER?

The definition

A facility is an activity or series of activities, including ancillary activities, that generate greenhouse gas emissions and produce or consume energy, and that form a single undertaking or enterprise. The Clean Energy Regulator describes the definition as deliberately broad, so that different industries can define boundaries that fit their operations.

Why the boundary matters

Grouping activities into one facility makes it more likely that the facility exceeds a facility threshold. Once a corporate group threshold is met, however, every facility in the group is reported regardless of its size. For a site with several connected operations, the way activities are grouped decides whether a facility threshold is met and how data is presented to the Regulator.

Special types of facility

• Safeguard facilities have high levels of direct emissions, are covered by the Safeguard Mechanism, and must keep emissions below a baseline or manage excess emissions.
• Designated generation facilities have electricity production as their principal activity. A facility that generates electricity for its own use, or as a secondary activity, is not one.
• National transport facilities can be nominated so that state and territory transport facilities are reported as a single facility.
• Multi-site cement facilities can be nominated so that cement production across several sites is reported as one facility.

Declarations

In some circumstances a controlling corporation can apply to have an activity or series of activities declared a facility under section 54 of the NGER Act, and the Regulator can also make such a declaration. The Regulator asks corporations to contact it before applying.

Linking facilities to reporters

Each facility is tied to one corporate group through operational control. The controlling corporation must identify every facility under its own operational control or that of its group members before it can test the thresholds.