Solar Accreditation Australia will release two new mandatory CPD modules on switchboards in its CPD Hub across October and November 2026. Every accredited installer and designer has to complete both by 1 June 2027.
SAA announced the modules in its September newsletter on 30 September. For the installers at PSW Energy and Perth Solar Warehouse, as for every accreditee in the country, that means two more modules to fit into the next eight months.
Old switchboards, new loads
SAA's reason is the number of solar systems, batteries and EV chargers now being connected to switchboards that were never built for them. It is a familiar problem on site. The battery itself is seldom the hard part of a job. The board it connects to often is, and when that board needs an upgrade, the scope and the price of the job change with it.
The modules teach how to judge whether an existing switchboard can take new equipment safely and compliantly. SAA lists the content as:
- maximum demand
- current summation
- protection requirements
- switchboard suitability
- common compliance issues
- integrating distributed energy resources
Free, and the points carry over
Solar Victoria has funded the modules, so they cost nothing to complete. An installer who has already reached 100 points this cycle keeps the credit: SAA will carry any points above 100 into the next cycle.
The standing requirement does not change. Accreditees still need 100 CPD points every 12 months on a rolling basis, plus any mandatory modules by their due dates. The last two mandatory modules, COM001 on parallel earth and neutral connections and COM002 on fire barriers and habitable rooms, fell due on 30 June 2026.
A switchboard session at All Energy
SAA is also running Switchboards: Assessing Existing Installations in the All Energy masterclass program in Melbourne on Wednesday 28 October 2026, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. It is worth 10 CPD points. Bring your SAA accreditation number, and expect a short knowledge assessment before the points are credited.
The newsletter does not say whether the session counts towards either mandatory module. Until SAA confirms that it does, plan on completing both modules online as well.
Two PV faults the regulator keeps finding
The same newsletter carried an update from the Clean Energy Regulator on problems its inspectors keep finding on solar PV installations. It named two.
Both are quick to check before leaving a site and slow to fix once an inspector has found them. They sit alongside the regulator's battery inspection findings from earlier this year, which traced the non-compliance it recorded to installation practice, not to faulty products.
Source note
The release timing, the 1 June 2027 deadline, the Solar Victoria funding and the carry-over rule come from Solar Accreditation Australia's September 2026 newsletter, received directly from SAA on 30 September 2026. On that date, SAA's About CPD (opens in a new tab) page still listed COM001 and COM002 as the current mandatory modules and did not yet describe the switchboard modules. The newsletter did not give module codes, titles or point values. Accreditees should check their own due dates in the SAA Portal.
