Who it is for
For most people, three things have to be true. You live at the property. The energy account is in your name, and yours is the first name on the bill. And you hold an eligible concession card or receive an eligible Centrelink payment. Asylum seekers can be eligible too, under a separate set of instructions on SA.GOV.AU.
The cards and payments are close to the ones that unlock the Cost of Living Concession (Folio 01), with one difference worth noticing: the energy concession page offers no separate low-income route for people who hold neither.
It reaches past mains electricity, too. The concession can go towards fuels used to make energy, with bottled LPG and petrol given as examples.
Where the money lands
How the concession is paid depends on how you live.
| If you are | It is paid as |
|---|---|
| A homeowner or a private tenant | A credit on your electricity bill |
| An SA Housing Trust tenant | A credit on your utility bill |
| Living in a residential park | A combined household concessions payment into your bank account, every quarter |
| In a retirement village | A bill credit if a retailer bills you in your own name; otherwise a quarterly bank payment, depending on the village’s arrangements |
| Not billed by an energy retailer (for example, you make your own power) | A quarterly payment into your bank account |
Because the credit is calculated per day, the amount you see on each bill moves with the number of days the bill covers.
When you switch retailer
The concession does not follow you to a new retailer by itself: the government’s page says South Australian energy retailers cannot transfer it, so ConcessionsSA has to be told.
- Make sure the new account lists you as an account holder, under the same name that appears on your Centrelink or DVA card.
- Wait for the first bill from the new retailer.
- Update your details with ConcessionsSA, online through the household concessions form or by phone on 1800 307 758.
When you move house
- Give Centrelink or DVA your new address first.
- Hold off until the first electricity bill arrives at the new place.
- Then update ConcessionsSA, using the same online form or the same phone line.
The discount offer that rides on the concession
Separate from the concession itself, the SA Concessions Energy Discount Offer is open only to people who already receive the energy concession. It is an offer from a single energy retailer, named on the government’s own Energy Discount Offer page, and taking it up means being, or becoming, that retailer’s customer.
As the government page sets it out in October 2026, the offer carries a guaranteed 20% off the retailer’s standard electricity usage and supply charges and 15% off its standard gas charges, waives late payment, card payment, processing, paper bill and exit fees, and adds payment options such as payment plans and extensions. People using bottled LPG are offered 40% off the retailer’s local price for a 45kg cylinder for 12 months.
The same page does not present it as right for everyone. It says the saving depends on your current plan and how much energy you use, suggests comparing against your existing plan on the government’s Energy Made Easy site, and flags exit fees and rooftop solar as things to weigh. Whether it suits a particular household is a question that page, a free financial counsellor or the household’s own comparison can help answer (Folio 06 lists where counselling is).
If the power is about to be cut off
For electricity customers in financial hardship there is also the Emergency Electricity Payment Scheme, an emergency payment for people with an electricity debt whose supply has been disconnected or is at risk of it. It is not applied for directly: a financial counsellor looks at the household’s finances first and can lodge the application for you.
Next in the book: Folio 03, Emergency services levy