Guy Barnett, Minister for Energy and Renewables,
The Tasmanian Government is taking a targeted approach with a new Winter Energy Assistance Package to support those who need it most and to give Tasmanian families and small business the tools they need to lower their bills as well as future-proof against bill shock.
An important part of the of this package is the announcement that Aurora Energy will provide its Aurora+ app at no charge from 1 July. Previously Aurora+ has been available to consumers for an additional cost of about $40 per year, however we want to ensure as many Tasmanians are signed up to aurora+ as possible over the next 12 months, facilitated by the accelerated roll-out of advanced meters, and we welcome Aurora's decision to remove the fee.
Aurora+ is a critical tool in providing Tasmanians greater visibility over their electricity usage. In fact, Tasmanians using Aurora+ are significantly less likely to experience bill shock and their debt levels are significantly lower than customers who don't.
Aurora+ can be used on your smart phone, tablet or PC. Aurora also has staff on-hand to help Tasmanians with accessing concession payments, advice on investing in energy efficient appliances, helping customers in financial stress and also explaining to customers how Aurora+ can be used to cut bills.
Aurora+ is just one of the measures being rolled out this winter to assist Tasmanians which include:
- A $180 Winter Bill Buster discount applied to bills for Tasmania's 94,230 eligible electricity concession account holders, including those in embedded networks. This will be provided to eligible customers, no matter which retailer they are with on their next bill from 1 August 2022. Eligible concession card holders will receive this automatically.
- A boosted and expanded $50 million Energy Saver Loan scheme, providing up to $10,000 for an interest free loan to private residential customers, small business customers and landlords of residential rental properties to invest in energy efficient products to help lower their electricity bills.
- A $1.7 million Aurora Customer Support Fund and YES incentive payment extension to support residential and small business customers experiencing financial vulnerability with subsidised payment plans and one-off payments. Aurora's YES program (financial hardship) incentive payment will also be extended for another 12 months from 1 July 2023, to provide residential customers who are meeting their payment commitments at their quarterly review with a credit to the value of their next fortnightly instalment up to $200. This is in addition to $200,000 recently made available from Aurora to the Salvation Army and emergency relief providers to assist customers experiencing vulnerability.
- An ongoing commitment to the No Interest Loan Scheme (NILs) for low income Tasmanians to purchase things like household, medical and education essentials up to $1500.
The Tasmanian Government will also continue to monitor cost of living pressures on Tasmanians and stands ready to respond with further measures if required.
