About Jemena’s Natural Gas Appliance Programs
For more than 15 years, Jemena has been offering rebates on natural gas appliance purchases, supporting hundreds of plumbers, gas fitters, showrooms and manufacturers - all running small Australian businesses to provide greater energy choice to their customers.
During this time, Jemena has assisted thousands of gas customers across NSW to minimise the upfront cost of purchasing natural gas appliances as well as their ongoing energy costs by ensuring rebates apply only to appliances that achieve high 5-6 star efficiency ratings; and programs are focused on customers living in existing residential network areas to replace old, inefficient appliances.
“When a customer replaces an old, inefficient 3-star system with a 6-star system, this alone can reduce the systems running costs by up to 30%*. Combine that with a rebate of up to $500, and customers can benefit from savings on both the purchase price and ongoing running costs.” said Peter Keli, Trade Marketing Manager, Natural Gas.
At a time of high inflation (the highest in over 30 years), ongoing interest rate rises and increasing cost-of-living expenses, Jemena is trying its best to continually give money back to its gas customers and help relieve some of the financial burden. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, we also ran a compassionate rebate program designed to take some of the monetary stress away from our most vulnerable customers needing to replace old and broken-down appliances at a time when many customers were out of work or adversely impacted by lockdowns.
“Over the past 15 years that our rebate programs have been running, we have assisted thousands of customers and paid out millions of dollars – putting money back in customer pockets and helping to drive business for plumbers and appliance dealers,” said Keli
The programs are driven by customer demand and supported by hundreds of Jemena trade partners – including plumbers, gasfitters, gas specialist retailers, appliance manufacturers and industry bodies.
Simon Wills, Founder at The Heater Man said, “We have been part of Jemena’s programs for many years. They offer a great incentive, helping customers to reduce their energy costs. Our customers love using gas in their homes but energy bills across gas and electricity are increasing. The customers that visit my showroom are incredibly grateful that these rebate programs exist, offering them choice when it comes to their household energy decisions.”
Over the years our programs have not only helped gas customers replace old, inefficient appliances with 5-6 star energy efficient appliances, they have also made the replacement of broken-down appliances more affordable for many vulnerable or lower income customers across both gas-to-gas and electric-to-gas breakdowns.
*Seeley International Ducted Gas Heating
Critical energy works need to continue
During these unprecedented times of uncertainty, energy networks want customers to know they are doing everything they can to keep the power on, gas flowing and the energy system safe and reliable.
There is a need to continue critical maintenance to protect lives, prevent damage to properties and keep the power on for the future.
Referred to as a planned outage, this critical preventive maintenance is needed to ensure customers continue to receive a reliable supply of energy. It means that the supply of electricity or gas will sometimes be temporarily interrupted so the work can be done safely and efficiently.
Today, Energy Networks Australia has released a video explaining why this critical maintenance is undertaken.
Energy Networks Australia CEO, Andrew Dillon, said networks recognised planned outages caused inconvenience, particularly given the current crisis, but the work that was being undertaken was absolutely essential to ensure a safe and secure energy system.
“We understand many customers are working from home during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, however, to ensure you are able to continue to have power for weeks to come, critical maintenance must continue,” Mr Dillon said.
“It is likely that restrictions relating to COVID-19 will continue for several months. Networks are doing everything they can to minimise disruption while these urgent works are undertaken.
“For some critical work, power will be disrupted for a few hours. This is designed to avoid potentially catastrophic faults that could cause long term outages and put customer safety at risk.
“Please respect the crews performing these works, they are doing so to protect you and your families and ensure the safe and reliable supply of energy.”
Mr Dillon said energy networks were taking steps to minimise disruptions and ensure critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, have secure supplies.
“We ask for your patience as networks continue to carry out critical works,” Mr Dillon said.
Jemena Gas Network
We’ve recently made a series of positive changes to the Jemena ‘Connect and Manage My Gas’ Portal, providing you with an even quicker and easier way to arrange a new gas connection or manage your existing connection.
These improvements have been designed to help save you time and improve the gas connection application process for detached residential properties:
Reducing application processing times to within 1 hour, including issuing a gas connection offer in most cases - a process that used to take several business days in many cases
Simplifying the application process itself, significantly reducing the time it takes to request a gas connection online
Additional improvements to the ‘Connect and Manage My Gas’ Portal will be introduced by the end of October 2019 and will further improve our customer service offerings and experience, including:
Quicker and easier online self-service for all gas connection requests and gas pipe relocations - including requests for third party initiated asset relocation projects, new estates, medium density sites, high rise developments and commercial properties, as well as detached residential properties
24/7 portal access and tracking of connection requests, including automated status updates and email notifications
A single touch-point to streamline and improve your experience and access to our services.
Further updates to the portal will also be introduced later this year, including:
A gas connection quoting tool to give you fast and convenient price indications for your gas connection requests
Gas availability maps to provide transparency on gas availabilty nearby to your property.
Further information on all planned updates and instructions on how to complete a gas connection application, or other service update request, via the portal can be found at jemena.com.au/gas/home-and-business/get-connected. Remember, you can also ask your preferred energy retailer to lodge a gas connection application on your behalf if you prefer.
Introducing changes to simplify your online requests is just one of the ways we are committed to continuously improving services and experiences for our customers.