Energy Bill Relief

The Tasmanian Government has partnered with the Australian Government to provide electricity bill rebates to eligible households, small businesses and eligible customers of embedded networks.

An overview of the support offered to small business customers and embedded network customers is provided below.

Small Businesses

Small businesses will receive $650 of support during the 2023-24 financial year. This will be provided in the form of two equal rebates, automatically applied to bills by electricity retailers from 1 July 2023.

If you are a small business in Tasmania that consumes less than 150 MWh of electricity a year, you can expect to see the following rebates applied to your electricity bills:

• $325 rebate in the September quarter 2023
• $325 rebate in the June quarter of 2024.

If you believe your business is eligible (based on your annual electricity consumption) and you do not receive the rebate in the quarterly bills described above, please contact your electricity retailer.

Residential customers served by retailers

Eligible customers currently receiving the annual electricity concession through their retailer need to take no action and will automatically receive two $125 bill credits per year for two years after 1 July 2023.

Eligible customers not currently receiving the annual electricity concession should contact their retailer to register.

For information on support for eligible households, please go to: Tasmanian Government Concessions : ELECTRICITY

Embedded Network customers

The Energy Bill Relief program also assists eligible customers that access electricity for their principal place of residence via an embedded network. An embedded network arrangement exists if you pay for your electricity via your landlord in a caravan park or retirement home or village through an individually metered connection rather than purchase electricity directly from an electricity retailer (like Aurora or 1st Energy). You will need to apply for the rebate as follows.

For your household to be eligible for the rebate the electricity account holder must, as at 1 July in the relevant year, be a recipient or holder of:

• Pensioner Concession Card (issued by either Services Australia or the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA))
• Health Care Card (including Low Income Health Care Card)
• DVA Gold Card
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (issued by either Services Australia or DVA)
• Family Tax Benefit (FTB) A and B
• Carer Allowance
• Immicard (Bridging Visa E).

You must also be able to provide evidence of your address as well as a recent receipt indicating a metered electricity supply at your principal place of residence.

Caravans parked on residential properties are not eligible under this program as they are not individually metered and as a result do not meet the definition of an embedded network.

There are three ways for eligible applicants to access the rebate:

1. apply directly online via SmartyGrants
2. by taking your completed application form along with your relevant documentation for sighting by a Service Tasmania staff member to any Service Tasmania branch around the State; or
3. by sending completed paper applications along with copies of your relevant documentation directly to ReCFIT by mail to: Department of State Growth, Attention: ReCFIT Concessions Team, GPO Box 536, HOBART  TAS  7001

If your application is approved, a grant payment of $250 will be made to eligible customers as a one-off payment for each of 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years. Applications received after 30 June 2024 will only be eligible for one $250 grant payment for 2024-25.

For the second $250 payment in 2024-25, it is intended that eligible applicants that have provided consent for us to confirm their details with Services Australia will not be required to reapply a second time, and that the $250 will automatically be provided in the second year to the nominated bank account, assuming all of the applicant eligibility requirements remain unchanged. Those that have not provided the requested Services Australia consent will have to reapply.

The Energy Bill Relief application form contains further details about the requirements to be met to receive the Energy Bill Relief payment. It will be the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that all requirements outlined in the form are met, and that all parts of the application form are fully completed.

To ensure payment of the grant for both years, applications must be received before 30 June 2024. Applications received after 30 June 2024 will only be eligible for the one grant payment of $250 for 2024-25.