LIFE SUPPORT

About Flow Power’s Life Support Policy

At Flow Power, we know and understand that some customers need specific life support equipment.

If someone at your address uses life support equipment, please register the details with us immediately. Under the energy regulations there are additional protections in place for customers with valid registration.

Life support registration

If you or someone at your premises relies on life support equipment there are a few things you need to do to complete your life support registration with us.

Let us know you require life support protection – we will immediately flag your account.

Complete the medical confirmation form that we will send you and return it to us by the due date*.

Prepare an action plan in case of a planned or unplanned outage. See below for helpful information on what your ‘action plan’ should include.

Check with us to see if you are eligible for the life support concession. This is an addition to any regular concession you may be eligible for.

By registering your life support equipment with us you will receive four days’ advance written notice of any planned outages. Other restrictions will also be applied when it comes to disconnecting your power. In the event of a power outage, your premises will also be on the priority list for reconnection of supply.

Please note: if your registered address is outside Victoria and you have an existing medical confirmation form that was submitted to a previous retailer or distributor, you can send us that form instead of providing us with a new one.

The form should meet the following requirements:

it’s signed and dated by a medical practitioner within the past four years, and
the form is legible (i.e. the print can be read).

You can download the medical confirmation form here. Once you’ve completed it according to the above conditions, you must return the complete and signed form to us via email at contact@flowpower.com.au

We will then confirm receipt of your medical confirmation and notify the distributor.

What is life support equipment?

The energy regulations define life support equipment to mean any of the following:

• an oxygen concentrator
• an intermittent peritoneal dialysis machine
• a kidney dialysis machine
• a chronic positive airways pressure respirator
• Crigler-Najjar syndrome phototherapy equipment
• a ventilator for life support

or any other equipment that a registered medical practitioner certifies is required for a person residing at the customer’s premises for life support.

Other life support equipment may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• external heart pumps
• respirators (iron lung)
• suction pumps (respiratory or gastric)
• feeding pumps (kangaroo pump, or total parenteral nutrition)
• insulin pumps
• airbed vibrator
• hot water
• nebuliser, humidifiers or vaporisers
• apnoea monitors
• medically required heating or air conditioning
• medically required refrigeration
• powered wheelchair

Planning for the unexpected

If your premise loses energy unexpectedly, everyone must know what to do.

You should:

• keep your action plan and the phone numbers of your energy distributor in a convenient location so you can find them easily
• consider contacting your distributor to see how long the outage will last, and
• follow your action plan and call 000 for emergency medical assistance if required.

Here are some questions you could consider asking when preparing your action plan:

• Do I have another place to go if needed?
• How will I get there?
• Do I need to take my life support equipment with me?
• Who is my emergency contact? e.g., a friend or a family member? Keep a physical list of emergency contacts easily accessible.
• Is my phone in working condition to make emergency calls?
• Is my backup equipment in working condition?

Move outs and transfers

If you move premise with us, you’ll need to complete a new medical confirmation form to ensure your equipment is registered at your new address.

Similarly, if you change energy retailers, you’ll need to contact your new retailer to register your life support equipment.

Life support equipment deregistration

If you no longer need your life support equipment registered, call us on 1800 359 797 or email us contact@flowpower.com.au to let us know. We’ll send you a letter to confirm that you’re no longer a life support customer and remove the protections at your premise.

24/7 faults line

We’ve listed the 24-hour emergency numbers for energy distributors in Victoria and New South Wales below.

You can find your distributor on your energy bill.

Ausnet
131 799 Victoria

CitiPower
131 280 Victoria

Jamena

131 626 Victoria

Powercor
132 412 Victoria

United Energy
132 099 Victoria

Essential Energy
132 080 New South Wales

Endeavour Energy
131 003 New South Wales

Ausgrid
13 13 88 New South Wales