More than 84,000 homes and businesses in the Northern Rivers experienced power outages during ex-cyclone Alfred.

Some lost power multiple times.

The State Government has written to energy companies asking them to defer electricity bills and waive a fee for households and businesses to ease the pressure on those recovering from the natural disaster.

Essential Energy will waive the daily access charge for customers for the time they were without power.

Minister for Energy Penny Sharpe has written to 22 companies requesting their cooperation in supporting customers who live in the LGAs included in the natural disaster declaration – this includes Richmond Valley and Kyogle.

The minister has asked energy companies to:

• Waive the daily power supply charge for customers for the period they were not supplied electricity (by passing on the waiver being provided to retailers by Essential Energy).
• Defer any electricity bills that are due to be sent to customers for 14 days.
• Defer any disconnections or repayment requirements for 14 days for affected customers in debt or with any amount owing on their account.
• Provide additional information about payment plan options and NSW Government financial support if customers find they are unable to pay their bill as a result of the cyclone impacts.

State and federal governments are offering a personal hardship grant with payments of $180 for individuals and up to $900 per family available through Service NSW for essential costs such as food, clothing, medicine and emergency accommodation.

To be eligible, individuals must have been subject to an evacuation order or have experienced a power outage of more than 48 hours.

Customers whose ability to repay their energy bills has been impacted by ex-Cyclone Alfred can also apply for NSW Government Energy Accounts Payment Assistance (EAPA) support to help pay their energy bills.

EAPA helps people experiencing difficulty paying their electricity and/or gas bill due to a short-term financial hardship, crisis or emergency to stay connected to essential services.?EAPA can only be applied to current, unpaid energy bills.

How the energy companies operate:

Essential Energy is one of three distribution network operators in NSW. Essential Energy, Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy are responsible for the distribution lines in a specified region:

Essential Energy – Riverina, South Eastern region, Northern NSW and Central Tablelands

Ausgrid – Sydney’s north, Central Coast and Newcastle

Endeavour Energy – Blue Mountains, Western Sydney, Illawarra and South Coast

Energy retailers such as Origin Energy, AGL, Red Energy and EnergyAustralia buy electricity from the market pool and contract with generators to manage prices.

Retailers then sell electricity to households and businesses. Most customers only ever interact with their retailer, which sends them their quarterly bill.

There are 22 energy retailers with customers in the region affected by the natural disaster from March 3.

To assist customer recovery from the impacts of ex-cyclone Alfred and the extended periods of time without power, Essential Energy is offering financial and non-financial support. For more information go here.

There is a range of different payments for flood recovery. Read about them here and check your eligibility.

This information was provided by the NSW Government.

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 19 March 2025.