New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY (GENERAL) REGULATION 2001 - REG 13A

13A Licence condition relating to payment plans, disconnection and discontinuance of supply

(1) It is a condition of a licence of a supplier who supplies electricity to a small retail customer that the supplier operate a payment plan:

(a) applying to small retail customers who own or occupy residential premises and who are, in the supplier’s opinion, experiencing financial difficulty, and

(b) that complies with subclause (2) and is approved by the Minister for the purposes of this clause.

(2) The payment plan must:

(a) enable customers to make payments by instalments, in advance or arrears, and

(b) provide for the customer to be informed of the following matters:

(i) the period, or periods, of the payment plan,

(ii) the amount of each instalment and the frequency of instalments,

(iii) if the customer is in arrears, the number of instalments required to pay the arrears,

(iv) if the customer is to pay in advance, the basis on which instalments are calculated, and

(c) provide for instalments to be calculated having regard to a customer’s consumption needs, a customer’s capacity to pay and the amount of any arrears a customer is required to pay, and

(d) provide procedures that are fair and reasonable for dealing with the financial difficulty faced by a customer who is obtaining the benefit of the scheme.

(3) It is a condition of a licence of a supplier who supplies electricity to a small retail customer that the supplier does not discontinue supply to residential premises owned or occupied by a small retail customer or, in a case where connection services have been arranged by the supplier, request the service provider to disconnect such premises, on the grounds that the customer has failed to make due payment of money owed to the supplier unless:

(a) the supplier provides written notice of the supplier’s intention to do so to the customer, indicating that, if the customer is experiencing financial difficulty, the customer may apply for assistance under the payment plan operated by the supplier, and

(b) the customer fails to apply for assistance under the payment plan by the date indicated in the notice as the date by which the customer must make such an application, or having made such an application, is assessed by the supplier to be ineligible for assistance under the payment plan.

(4) It is a condition of a licence of a service provider who provides customer connection services to a small retail customer through an arrangement with the supplier that the service provider does not disconnect residential premises owned or occupied by the small retail customer at the request of the supplier unless the supplier has notified the service provider that it is authorised to make the request under subclause (3).

(5) Subclauses (3) and (4) do not apply to any disconnection or discontinuance of supply on the grounds of failure to make due payment of money in accordance with a payment plan.

(6) The Minister’s approval of a payment plan:

(a) has effect for the period of time specified in the approval, and

(b) is subject to such conditions as the Minister may specify in the approval, which may include a condition requiring the supplier to submit the payment plan for review when requested by the Minister.