If you, or someone in your home, require life support equipment, there are a few things you should be aware of to make sure your power supply is always protected.

Notify your energy provider

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

Your energy provider will then 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 return.

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

If you’ve already told your provider that someone in your home needs life support equipment, but you haven’t sent the medical confirmation form, your provider 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. You will need to contact them and send the form to get re-registered.

Power outages 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.

However, unplanned power outages may still happen. It's important to have an action plan ready to ensure your life support equipment will operate if a power outage occurs. An action plan can include:

• keeping a back-up power system such as a battery or generator for your equipment
• regularly checking any back-up batteries to ensure they're fully charged
• making arrangements with family, friends or a nearby hospital in case of an emergency.

If your power goes out unexpectedly, you should also get in touch with your distributor, not your provider, on their emergency line. You can find their number on your bills.

Life support and medical concessions

There are some concessions available to Queenslanders who use life support equipment at home to assist with the electricity costs of these machines.

• The Electricity Life Support Concession Scheme is for customers who have a home-based oxygen concentrator or kidney dialysis machine.
• The Medical Cooling and Heating Electricity Concession Scheme provides assistance to those who have a chronic medical condition that is aggravated by changes in temperature.

These concessions are in addition to the Queensland Government energy concessions that you may already receive or be entitled to.

Have an issue with your energy provider

If you have a dispute with your electricity provider around your life support protections or concessions and can't resolve it with them, we may be able to help. You can submit a complaint online or call us on 1800 662 837.

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