The Clean Energy Regulator recommends you draw up a plan for the monitoring, data collecting and record keeping required for a project report as specified in Part 5 of the method. The means of collecting and recording data will need to be in place from the start of the project. Should a project report and associated audit show that data collecting and record keeping has not been in place for the entire reporting period, ACCUs may not be issued for some or all of that reporting period.
When developing your plan, make sure you have the right controls and processes around your data. Are you collecting your data efficiently? Will you be able to maintain your data in the event of an emergency such as a fire?
In general, when parameters for a Wastewater project cannot be monitored according to provided specifications, no inputs should be used in the calculations for that period. This clarifies that if a project does not comply with the monitoring requirements, activity for that period should not be counted.
Section 45 of the method lists 16 parameters that require monitoring for a Wastewater project. Key parameters include:
- the quantities of ineligible materials and eligible wastewater treated by the project
- the volume of biogas sent to combustion devices and the methane content of that biogas
- the volume of fuel and electricity used by the project, and
- the wet weight of digestate treated.
If you are unable to monitor any of the parameters used in the abatement calculations during a reporting period, you must determine their value following Section 46 in the method.