Life support
What is Life Support?
Life Support equipment is equipment that is needed to ensure the ongoing health and safety of people with certain medical conditions.
If someone at your home requires continuous electricity supply for the use of Life Support equipment, please download and complete the appropriate form and return to Powershop.
If you have any questions please get in touch:
Email: info@powershop.com.au
Phone:1800 462 668
Monday-Friday, 8am-7pm AEDT
To return your completed Life Support Registration or Concessions forms to Powershop, please send to:
Email: info@powershop.com.au
Fax: 1800 881 158
Post: Powershop Australia
GPO Box 1639
Melbourne, Vic, 3001
What is Sensitive Load?
Sensitive Load differs to Life Support in that:
- A loss of electricity at a site with Sensitive Load will not pose a direct threat to life.
- A Sensitive Load site will not be flagged with your distributor.
- A Sensitive Load site can be disconnected by Powershop or your distributor.
Some examples of a Sensitive Load site include:
- In Victoria, a CPAP machine may be Sensitive Load.
- Home office or business.
- Housing for the elderly.
Eligible Life Support equipment and applications forms
Click on your state below to view the relevant information and download forms.
Eligible equipment |
Concession available? |
| Oxygen concentrator | Yes |
| Intermittent peritoneal dialysis machine | Yes |
| Haemodialysis machine | Yes |
| Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) machine (also known as CPAP) | No |
| Ventilator | No |
| Ventolin nebuliser | No |
Click to download the Victorian Life Support Concession and machine notification form:
Victorian Life Support Concession and machine notification form
For more information on Victorian energy concessions please visit the Department of Human Services website.
Click here to download the Victorian Medical Cooling concession application form:
Victorian Medical Cooling concession application form
Eligible equipment |
Concession available? |
| Positive Airways Pressure (PAP) Devices | Yes |
| Enteral feeding pump | Yes |
| Ventilators (formerly known as ‘respirator’ or ‘iron lung’) | Yes |
| Oxygen concentrators | Yes |
| Total Parental Nutrition (TPN) | Yes |
| Left ventricular assist device | Yes |
| Home dialysis | Yes |
| Phototherapy equipment (Crigler Najjar) | Yes |
Eligible equipment |
Concession available? |
| Oxygen concentrator (through the Queensland Government) | Yes |
| Intermittent peritoneal dialysis machine | No |
| Kidney dialysis machine | Yes |
| Chronic positive airways pressure respirators | No |
| Crigler Najjar syndrome phototherapy equipment | No |
| A ventilator for life support | No |
Click to download the QLD Life Support Equipment Registration form: QLD Life Support Equipment Registration form
To apply for, or information on the Queensland Life Support concession please click here to visit Queensland Government’s website and search 'life support'.
Eligible equipment |
Concession available? |
| Oxygen concentrator | No |
| Intermittent peritoneal dialysis machine | No |
| Kidney dialysis machine | No |
| Chronic Positive Airway Pressure (PAP/CPAP) machine | No |
| Crigler najjar syndrome phototherapy equipment | No |
| A ventilator for life support | No |
| Any other equipment that a registered medical practitioner certifies is required for a person residing at the customer’s premises for life support | No |
Click to download the South Australia Life Support Equipment Registration form: South Australia Life Support Equipment Registration form
For information on the Medical heating and cooling concession click here.
What if there is a Power Outage?
If you are a Powershop Life Support customer experiencing a power outage and the situation is life threatening please call 000 immediately and request an ambulance.
If the situation is non-life threatening or an ambulance is not required, please call your local electricity network distributor’s Faults and Outages line immediately.
Distributor |
Area served |
Faults & Outages |
| Powercor Australia | Western suburbs and western Victoria | 13 24 12 |
| Ausnet Services | Outer northern and eastern suburbs and eastern Victoria | 13 17 99 |
| United Energy | Southern suburbs and Mornington peninsula | 13 20 99 |
| Citipower | City and inner suburbs | 13 12 80 |
| Jemena | Northern and north-western suburbs | 13 16 26 |
Distributor |
Area served |
Faults & Outages |
| Endeavour Energy | Southern & western metropolitan Sydney and surrounds including the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra | 13 10 03 |
| Essential Energy | Country & regional NSW, southern regional QLD | 13 20 80 |
| Ausgrid | Inner, northern & eastern metropolitan Sydney and surrounds | 13 13 88 |
Distributor |
Area served |
Faults & Outages |
| Energex | Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast & surrounds | 13 19 62 |
Powershop do not supply electricity to the Ergon Energy distribution network area.
Distributor |
Faults & Outages |
| SA Power Networks | 13 13 66 |
Your Rights and Safety
Your rights
If you are a Powershop customer and correctly register your property as requiring Life Support with Powershop, which includes notifying Powershop and returning the applicable Life Support Registration forms, you will:
- not have your property disconnected under any circumstances unless requested by you;
- in the event of a planned electricity outage, have your property flagged with your local distributor (to ensure that you are informed of any planned outages in advance so that arrangements can be made to secure continued electricity supply during this period); and
- in the event of an un-planned electricity outage, have your property flagged with your local distributor as requiring prompt reconnection of electricity, or your distributor will make other arrangements to ensure your electricity is reconnected as soon as possible.
If you do not return a completed copy of your Life Support Registration form to Powershop, we may remove the Life Support flag from your account. This means that Powershop and your distributor will not have your property marked as requiring Life Support, and you will not be entitled to the above rights.
Safety
Even if you have correctly flagged your property as requiring Life Support equipment it is important that you are prepared for any unexpected electricity outages. There are a few simple things you can do to ensure you are prepared:
- Regularly check the back-up battery of your Life Support equipment to ensure it is fully charged;
- Make sure you have important and up-to-date information on hand such as; your doctor’s name and contact details, friends and family contact details, nearest hospital, and the name and contact details of your emergency contact person(s); and
- Have a clear plan of what you would do if you lost electricity for an extended period.