Last week, the peak industry body, Energy Networks Australia, announced a COVID19 relief package for small business and residential consumers.
There are two main points of the package that may be of interest to small business:
- If you are a small business that is mothballed from 1 April to 30 June 2020 you may be eligible for a rebate of your network charges, which typically account for 30% to 50% of your electricity bill. To be eligible you should:
- be classified as a small energy user, where annual usage for the 2019 calendar year is less than 40 MWh for electricity or 400 GJ for gas.
- provide supporting evidence that energy usage is less than 25% of what it was historically during this period.
- In accordance with the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) statement, retailers cannot disconnect small business customers that are under financial stress through to 31 July 2020.
If you believe that you meet the criteria of a small business, where energy usage is significantly reduced through the April to June period, Empower will be happy to provide you with assistance in gathering and analysing the meter data required to support your rebate request which must be lodged by 1 September 2020.
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) also announced their 10 new expectations of energy businesses. Key points that may be of assistance from your retailers:
- The offer of a payment plan of hardship arrangement for small businesses, regardless of whether the customer meets the ‘usual’ criteria for that assistance.
- Do not disconnect a small business who may be in financial stress, without their agreement, before 31 July 2020 and potentially beyond.
- Defer referrals of customers to debt collection agencies for recovery actions, or credit default listing until at least 31 July 2020
We at Empower are very concerned about the impacts the lock-down will have on the future of Australian businesses, should you wish to discuss your specific concerns in relation to the best solution for reducing your energy usage and cost, please reach out to us.