WA Residential customers to receive an energy relief payment of $700

The Western Australian Government announced the $400 Western Australian Household Electricity Credit on 9 May 2024.

On 14 May 2024, the Commonwealth Government announced $300 of additional energy bill relief funding for households through the Energy Bill Relief Fund Extension.

Funded by both the Commonwealth and Western Australian State Governments, the purpose of the 2024 Offset is to assist eligible residential electricity customers with the rising cost of living by providing a one-off, non-refundable account offset that is to be applied to an eligible residential electricity account.

The value of the 2024 Offset is $700 (GST free) payable over two instalments of $350 each. The first instalment was applied to eligible accounts on 20 July 2024 and the second instalment will be applied to eligible accounts from 7 December 2024.

The second instalment will be applied to eligible residential customer accounts that are supplied electricity by Synergy under an eligible residential product as of 18 November 2024 from 7 December 2024.

Customers will not need to apply for these offset payments, as we will automatically identify eligible residential customer accounts.

Eligible residential products include:

• The Home Plan (A1) Tariff;
• All non-standard residential electricity supply products including the Midday Saver, Community Energy, EV Add On Plan and grandfathered products including Smart Home Plan, SmartPower and EV Home Plan;
• Pre-payment meter accounts on one of the above residential tariffs; and
• Pilot products offered by Synergy targeting residential customers.

Customers on business tariffs (including those customers on the K1 tariff) will not be eligible for the residential credit offset payments. Small business and charity customers, including customers on the K1 tariff, will be eligible under the business credit offset payments.

Customers on the B1 tariff are not eligible for the credit offset payments as they will receive the credit under their Home Plan A1 tariff account.

To be eligible for the second instalment made from 7 December 2024, residential customers must have an eligible account as of 18 November 2024.  

No. The credit offset payments cannot be transferred or refunded to a financial institution account. If you’re moving supply address in WA and are being billed by Synergy or Horizon Power, you can transfer any remaining credit offset balance on your existing account to your new account. This will be applied to future bills at the new supply address.

If the account holder closes their Synergy account and the offset has not been fully applied to the account, any remaining balance will be returned to the WA State Government and not refunded or “cashed out”.

No. The second instalment of $350 will be automatically added to eligible Synergy accounts from 7 December 2024. You will not need to apply for the payment.

Yes. The WA State Government has advised that households who are not billed for their electricity use by Synergy or Horizon Power – 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 who are not billed by Synergy or Horizon Power and that were registered for the Energy Concession Extension Scheme (ECES) on 9 May 2024, will receive an equivalent credit automatically through the ECES.

For details on the application process for households not billed directly by Synergy or Horizon Power and for those who are not eligible for ECES visit https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/household-electricity-credit

No. Your account must have been open from 18 November 2024 and the payment date of 7 December 2024 (qualifying dates). 

If you have already closed your account and are looking to re-open it and are needing some support, we encourage you to contact us so we can assess your circumstances to see what assistance we can provide.

Eligible customer accounts are only entitled to one Household Electricity Credit offset payment and one Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief credit offset payment.

If you have more than one eligible account you will receive a credit offset payment on each of the eligible accounts.