New energy bill measures announced to support residential customers and small businesses in Western Victoria and Melbourne’s CBD

Small businesses and residential customers impacted by COVID-19 in western Victoria and Melbourne’s CBD will be able to access electricity bill relief under a new support package announced by energy network businesses today.

CitiPower and Powercor are among the energy networks in NSW, Victoria and South Australia that have announced a suite of measures to provide support for residential customers and small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Rourke said there are 128,550 small business customers in the two network regions who are potentially eligible for this relief.

“This is a genuine offer to support these customers in a meaningful way,” Mr Rourke said.

“It effectively provides six months of support by helping them now through the trading constraints and later when hopefully they’ll be getting back to business.”

Under the support package:

• We are working with electricity retailers to support residential customers who go on payment plans or hardship arrangements as a result of COVID-19. This will apply for customer network charges from 1 April to 30 June 2020.
• Network charges will be rebated for small business customers experiencing financial stress and who have temporarily ceased trading as a result of the pandemic. This applies for network charges from 1 April to 30 June 2020.

In other support programs, CitiPower and Powercor are waiving disconnection and/or reconnection fees for small businesses that have temporarily ceased trading. This means they will not pay the daily supply charges.

Eligible small businesses are those that consume less than 40MWh per annum and use less than 25% of their historical average consumption during the April to June period.

Small businesses don’t need to do anything to receive the rebate. It will be automatically administered through their existing electricity retailer.

CitiPower and Powercor are continuing to deliver safe and reliable power to more than 1.2 million homes and businesses as the COVID-19 situation escalates. Customers are advised that:

• All contact centre operations remain fully operational:
  • Powercor: 13 22 06 for general enquiries or 13 24 12 for service difficulties and faults
  • CitiPower: 1300 301 101 for general enquiries or 13 12 80 for service difficulties and faults
• CitiPower and Powercor branded uniforms and identity cards will be worn by any field representatives that need to conduct works on or near your property.
• Our approved contractors that work on the CitiPower and Powercor networks will have self-branded uniforms and carry CitiPower and Powercor branded identity cards.
• Notifications of any critical works or maintenance to sustain reliability and network safety will continue to be provided well in advance of works starting.
• Information on how to prepare for power outages and protect food safety is available on the website at www.powercor.com.au/outages/what-to-do-in-a-power-outage.

For more information about CitiPower and Powercor’s response to COVID-19, visit www.powercor.com.au/COVID