Energy companies must follow certain rules when they supply energy to a property where someone needs life support equipment—the National Energy Retail Rules.

Planned interruptions for life support customers

A major rule is that life support customers must get 4 business days’ notice about any planned interruption to their energy supply, so they can make other plans.

If you have life support equipment, or your doctor tells you that you need it, tell your energy supplier immediately so they can register you in their system.

This will ensure your supply is always protected.

Medical confirmation for life support equipment

Your energy provider will send you information explaining how the rules protect you. They will also give you a medical confirmation form for your doctor to complete that you will need to send back to your energy supplier.

It’s very important to send this form back to your supplier to make sure you’re protected.

If you’ve already told your supplier that someone in your home needs life support equipment, but you haven’t sent the medical confirmation form, your supplier might send you reminder notices.

If you still don’t send them the form after the reminders, they might take you off the register of life support customers. (Though you can still send the form to them at this time.)

If you miss the reminder notices for any reason, you can still be registered as a life support customer— just contact your energy supplier to let them know.

Life support and medical concessions

The Electricity Life Support Concession Scheme and the Medical Cooling and Heating Electricity Concession Scheme provide eligible people with assistance in meeting their electricity costs.

For more information on life support electricity protections, read the AER life support registration guide.