The inverter serial number ledger stores all eligible inverter serial numbers supplied to the Australian market.
To be eligible for small-scale technology certificates (STCs), responsible suppliers of Clean Energy Council (CEC) approved inverters must provide us with serial numbers.
A responsible supplier is either an Australian-based:
- manufacturer
- nominated importer for an overseas manufacturer.
What happens if you don’t provide serial numbers
If you don’t provide the serial numbers, it may result in:
- delayed processing of STC claims
- STC claims being rejected
- the inverter being declared ineligible.
If an inverter is declared ineligible, it can't receive STCs. This may impact your Australian sales.
Register to provide inverter serial numbers
To register to provide inverter serial numbers, you must be the authorised representative nominated by the responsible supplier on their CEC listing.
Before you register
- Have an Online Services account
- Have your Australian Business Number ready
- Make sure your CEC contact details are up to date
- Consider if you want to authorise any extra users to access your company account, and have their details ready (they must already have an Online Services account)
To add users after you’ve registered, you need to contact us.
Register online
You can register in Online Services using the Register to provide inverter serial numbers form.
Manage your inverter serial numbers
Once registered, go to Online Services and select ‘Manage inverter serial numbers’. From there, you can:
- add serial numbers
- update serial number status
- view upload history
- view serial numbers.
To add serial numbers, upload a CSV file with your serial numbers.
When preparing your data, make sure you use the column headings:
- Manufacturer
- Model
- Series
- Serial number.
Example file set up
| Manufacturer | Model | Series | Serial number |
|---|---|---|---|
| The legal entity name as registered (representing the licensee/certificate holder). | The model number imported by your business as the authorised supplier and as registered. | The series of the inverter as registered. | The serial number for the model imported by your business. |
info
Tips to avoid errors
- Upload data using a CSV file
- Make sure the file size is less than 1 MB
- Use the correct column headings
- Remove any spaces before or after the column headings and serial numbers
You’ll get an email once the data has been uploaded to the ledger.
You can update your serial numbers manually in Online Services, or by using a CSV file.
Upload a CSV
To update serial numbers, you can upload a CSV file with your updates.
When preparing your data, make sure you use the column headings:
- Manufacturer
- Model
- Series
- Serial number
- Status
- Reason.
You must include an eligible reason when updating the status of a serial number, which can include:
- ineligible product – not for the Australian market
- product recalled – defective inverter
- product recalled – damaged inverter
- data error – incorrect supplier
- data error – invalid serial number
- other.
If a serial number is not eligible for STCs, you must mark it as ineligible in the ledger.
Example file set up
| Manufacturer | Model | Series | Serial number | Status | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The legal entity name as registered (representing the licensee/certificate holder). | The model number imported by your business as the authorised supplier and as registered. | The series of the inverter as registered. | The serial number for the model imported by your business. | The updated status. e.g. ineligible | The reason for the status change. e.g. product recalled – defective inverter |
info
Tips to avoid errors
- Upload data using a CSV file
- Make sure the file size is less than 1 MB
- Use the correct column headings
- Remove any spaces before or after the column headings and serial numbers
- Include a valid reason for updating the serial number
You’ll get an email once the data has been updated.
Update serial numbers manually
You can use a filter when viewing your serial numbers to find the ones you want to manually update. Then, mark them as ineligible and select the reason for the update.
Fix upload errors
If an upload was completed with errors, you’ll need to correct the data and re-upload.
You can export the file to check the error message.
Make sure the model name matches the name on the CEC’s list of approved inverters. This includes the ‘declaration’ or ‘AS4777-2 2020’ suffix where applicable.
Make sure the manufacturer’s name matches the name on the CEC’s list of approved inverters.
Make sure the headers used when adding or updating serial numbers match the required format.
If the serial number contains 12 or more numbers, without any letters, it will automatically convert to a scientific notation, which needs to be fixed.
Fix scientific notation
- Ensure the ‘serial number’ column is set to ‘text’ not ‘number’
- Export to a CSV file and open it
- Confirm the serial numbers are formatted as ‘General’ (disregard the scientific notation displayed)
- Open the CSV file using Notepad
- Confirm all serial numbers are displayed correctly (not scientific notation) in Notepad
- Confirm irrelevant data is not appearing at the bottom of Notepad
- Upload using this file – no error message should appear
Your organisation is not listed as an importer for the manufacturer.
You will need to confirm that the model and manufacturer details are correct. Contact the CEC to confirm your organisation is a responsible supplier of the inverters.
The serial number you have entered is a duplicate and no action is needed.
You can see all uploaded serial numbers under ‘view serial numbers’. The data can also be exported to a CSV file to manage duplicates.
If you have updated the status of a serial number to ineligible, it can’t be changed back to eligible.
If the serial number was marked as ineligible in error, contact us.
Make sure you add a valid reason when updating serial number statuses.