Life Support
If you or someone in your household relies on life support equipment, please let us know so we can register your premises for life support protections.
Registration helps ensure you’re informed of planned electricity supply interruptions, including at least four business days’ prior written notice of planned outages by your retailer or distributor. Additional protections also apply to help prevent disconnection of your electricity supply.
Eligible life support equipment may include
- an oxygen concentrator
- an intermittent peritoneal dialysis machine
- a kidney dialysis machine
- Crigler-Najjar syndrome phototherapy equipment
- a ventilator for life support
- in relation to a particular customer — any other equipment (whether fuelled by electricity or gas) that a registered medical practitioner certifies is required for a person residing at the customer’s premises for life support
Other life support equipment may include, but is not limited to
- external heart pumps
- respirators (iron lung)
- suction pumps (respiratory or gastric)
- feeding pumps (kangaroo pump, or total parenteral nutrition)
- insulin pumps
- airbed vibrators
- hot water
- nebulisers, humidifiers or vaporisers
- apnoea monitors
- medically required heating and air conditioning
- medically required refrigeration
- powered wheelchairs
How do I register?
Please call us on 02 5657 8205 to register your life support equipment. Alternatively, you can contact your electricity distributor, who will notify us on your behalf.
If you’re unsure whether your equipment qualifies as life support equipment, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
What we’ll do
- Send you a medical confirmation form to complete and return to us.
- Provide temporary life support protections for your premises while you complete and submit the form.
- Provide guidance to help you prepare an emergency action plan, so you’re ready in the event of an unexpected energy supply interruption.
What you need to do
- Have a registered medical practitioner complete and sign the medical confirmation form.
- Complete and sign the form, then return it to us using the provided return envelope.
- If you need more time to submit the form by the due date, contact us to request an extension.
Unplanned power outages
We strongly recommend preparing an emergency action plan to help you stay safe during unexpected power outages caused by events such as storms or bushfires.
- Check your backup battery: set regular reminders to check and fully charge the backup battery for your life support equipment, so it’s ready when needed.
- Keep emergency contacts handy: have the names, addresses and phone numbers of your doctor, nearest hospital, neighbours and other trusted people who can help you in an emergency readily available.
- Plan for extended outages: talk to your medical practitioner about an emergency plan for prolonged power interruptions and other emergencies.
You may also be eligible for the NSW Life Support Rebate — see Concessions & Rebates.