Highlights from A2EP's Commercial Building Electrification workshops and site tours in Melbourne and Sydney
- 11 hours ago
- 1 min read
Melbourne - 28 April 2026
Sydney - 5 May 2026
We had two fantastic days of site tours, presentations, discussions and networking to explore the topic of lowering heating hot water temperature to reduce capex and opex of heat pump solutions for decarbonising commercial buildings.
A central message emerging from the workshops and site tours is that heating hot water (HHW) testing is a critical enabler of successful heat pump retrofits. The case studies and site tours at RMIT Building 80 (Melbourne) and 200 George Street (Sydney), demonstrated that systematic testing can safely reduce required heating capacity by around 50% while also enabling a 15°C reduction in HHW supply temperature, significantly improving project feasibility, lowering capital cost and expanding viable technology options.
In Sydney, we also had the opportunity to visit Victoria Park Pool where a recent change from gas boilers to heat pumps for pool heating is delivering more consistent pool temperature and vastly reduced operating costs and carbon emissions.
Workshop presentations were delivered by:
Julian Sutherland , Head Sustainable Assets APAC, JLL
Michael Snow, National Technical Services Lead, Turner and Townsend
David Palin, Director ESG, Mirvac
Peter Haenke, Program Director – Commercial, A2EP on behalf of GPT.
Thanks to the NSW Government and the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action for its support of the Sydney workshop.
If you are interested in learning more about A2EP's commercial building work, you can email Peter Haenke peter.haenke@a2ep.org.au.
