Life support equipment

If anyone at the property has life support equipment, it’s important to let us know so we can give you all the information you need to plan for energy outages.

Register life support equipment

If you have life support equipment at the property, it may rely on energy for the equipment to work. However sometimes your power needs to be turned off for scheduled maintenance or repairs.

By registering the life support equipment, we’ll make sure you’re kept up-to-date on any planned energy supply interruptions. That means you’ll receive life support protections, including at least four business days’ prior written notice of retailer or distributor planned outages and other restrictions to power supply at your property.

If you’ve already registered with your distributor, they’ll let us know. Otherwise, follow the steps below.

To register

1. Register the life support equipment with us by calling 131 245
2. We will:
   1. email or post you a medical confirmation form and details about our life support program. If your request was made by email, remember to check your junk folder and view the form in the body of the email. It won’t be an attachment.
   2. help you prepare for an unplanned energy supply outage with information to help you prepare an emergency action plan (PDF) 
   3. apply temporary life support protection to your account to give you time to have the form completed by a medical practitioner and returned to us by the due date.
3. Have a medical practitioner complete and sign the relevant section of your form.
4. Return your form by the due date included in your letter or email to the following address:
   AGL Life Support
   Reply Paid 84146
   Melbourne VIC 8001
5. Once we've processed your form, we'll send you confirmation by letter or email, depending on your communication preference for important notices.

If you don't register life support equipment

‎Registered life support customers receive four business days notice of planned electricity outages in writing by email or post. This is so you can make arrangements and ensure you have time to prepare.

If you don't register your life support equipment you'll still receive four business days' notice, but it may not always be in writing to you directly.

Eligible life support equipment

Depending on your state, eligible life support equipment can include:

• Enteral feeding pump
• External heart pump
• Home dialysis machine
• Oxygen concentrator
• Phototherapy equipment
• Positive Airways Pressure device (PAP)
• Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) pump
• Ventilators for life support
• Power wheelchair – for quadriplegics
• Other equipment required for life support – as specified by a medical practitioner.

To discuss eligible life support equipment and to register it with us, give us a call on 131 245.

Planning for outages

When you have life support equipment at the property, it's important to be prepared for a power outage, especially an unexpected one.

Things you need to consider:

1. Prepare a plan of action so everyone in the property knows what to do in an outage. For useful information to help you prepare an action plan, read Life support information for households (PDF).
2. Keep our emergency phone number and your energy distributor's number somewhere easy to find, like the front of the fridge. That way, you can find them if the power goes out. Find your distributor at Power outages.
3. If your property loses energy unexpectedly and someone is dependent on life support equipment, follow your action plan. If you require emergency medical assistance call 000.

Important information

Moving to a new property or changing energy retailers

If you move to a new property or change energy retailer, you’ll need to complete a new medical confirmation form either with us or your new retailer.

It’s important to let us know of any changes, including if you no longer need your equipment registered. You can call us on 131 245.

Registration reminders

We'll give you temporary life support protections while you complete your medical confirmation forms, however these protections will expire. If we haven’t received your completed medical confirmation form by the due date, we’ll keep sending you reminders to complete your forms up until the due date in the letters or emails we sent you.

If you no longer require life support equipment to be registered, let us know and we’ll update our records.

Extensions to registration due dates

If you don’t have enough time to get the form signed by your doctor before the registration due date, you can ask for an extension to your life support equipment registration. Call 131 245.

De-register life support equipment

‎If you want to de-register life support equipment, call 131 245.

We'll update your account and send you a confirmation letter to confirm when the life support equipment is being de-registered from your account. We'll also send a final confirmation once this has happened.