The McGowan Government announced on 4 October, as part of the 2020-21 State Budget, a one-off electricity account credit to be applied as an offset to reduce electricity bills to eligible residential customer accounts.

The $600 one-off WA Household Electricity Credit will be applied to eligible customers’ accounts on and from 1 November 2020, allowing more families to have a bit of extra money available in the lead up to Christmas.

The WA Household Electricity Credit will be applied as an offset to current residential customer accounts that were supplied electricity by Synergy under an eligible residential product as at 4 October 2020.

There is no application or opt-in action needed from customers that have an eligible customer account to receive the credit.

Eligible residential products include:

• The Home Plan (A1) Tariff.
• All non-standard residential electricity supply products including the Smart Home Plan, EV Home Plan, and grandfathered products including SmartPower and PowerShift.
• Pilot products offered by Synergy targeting residential customers including Alkimos Beach and PowerBank.

Eligible customer accounts are only entitled to one WA Household Electricity Credit per account.

K1 and business customers are not eligible for the credit. Eligible K1 customers received the Small Business and Charity Offset in May 2020.

B1 customers are not eligible as they will receive the credit under their A1 account (noting B1 customers will also have an accompanying eligible residential product that will receive the credit).

Households which are billed for their electricity use by other providers, such as residents of caravan parks, retirement villages, apartment buildings or communities supplied by local mining companies, will be eligible for an equivalent credit, except in exceptional circumstances.

Households that are billed by other providers and that were registered for the Energy Concession Extension Scheme (ECES) on 4 October 2020, will receive the credit automatically.

Work is currently underway on an application process for households not billed directly by Synergy or Horizon Power and for those who are not eligible for ECES.

Further information on the process for households not billed by Synergy or Horizon to obtain the credit will be provided on the WA Government’s ‘COVID-19 coronavirus: Latest updates’ page over the coming weeks.

To be eligible for the $600 credit, customers must be an existing residential customer of Synergy as at 4 October 2020 and supplied electricity under an eligible residential product. Any new customers that apply for a residential account after this date will not be eligible for the WA Household Electricity Credit.

The WA Household Electricity Credit will be applied as an offset to eligible customer accounts from 1 November 2020.

No. If you are transferring your customer account to a different address, then your credit can be carried forward and applied to future bills at the new address.

The WA Household Electricity Credit is non-refundable. Customers will not be able to seek a refund or cash-out any surplus amount, it can only be used as an offset against costs associated with the supply of electricity at the residential premises.

Households which are billed for their electricity use by other providers, such as residents of caravan parks, retirement villages, apartment buildings or communities supplied by local mining companies, will be eligible for an equivalent credit, except in exceptional circumstances.

Households that are billed by other providers and that were registered for the Energy Concession Extension Scheme (ECES) on 4 October 2020, will receive the credit automatically.

Work is currently underway on an application process for households not billed directly by Synergy or Horizon Power and for those who are not eligible for ECES.

Further information on the process for households not billed by Synergy or Horizon to obtain the credit will be provided on the WA Government’s ‘COVID-19 coronavirus: Latest updates’ page over the coming weeks.