Five food and drink companies and a textile manufacturer are the first businesses poised to benefit from a change to Victoria's energy efficiency scheme that rewards complex upgrade projects.
Business lighting upgrades now account for 90% of the certificates created under Victoria's VEET energy efficiency scheme, prompting the state government to propose less generous subsidies.
A new report on Victoria's energy efficiency scheme shows business lighting upgrades delivered more than half the scheme's greenhouse gas abatement in 2016.
A plan to attract clean energy businesses to Victoria's brown coal heartland will be released by the end of the year, according to the Authority that is guiding its development.