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Andrea Linsenmeier, Head of Customer Solutions
October 2026
If you’re struggling to pay your energy bill, reach out early. Our EnergyAssist team has supported customers in financial hardship since 2005, tailoring payment plans around real life situations and connecting people with grants and counselling. In recognition of these things, we’ve just won the Customer Experience award at the Australian Financial Review Energy Awards.
There’s a particular kind of quiet that comes with a bill you can’t pay. The envelope stays unopened a little longer. The numbers get done again at night, and they still don’t add up. Underneath it all is a question that’s hard to say out loud: what happens if the lights go out?
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Cost of living is pressing on households across Australia, and for many people an energy bill sits beside rent, groceries and everything else that costs more than it used to. Falling behind is stressful. It can also feel isolating, as if everyone else has it figured out.
Help that fits your real life
EnergyAssist is a team of people whose job is to stay with you through the hard part. Every situation is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all fix. Case managers shape payment plans around a person’s real life, not a spreadsheet, and connect people with grants and counselling.
Sometimes, we come to you. Through Knock to Stay Connected, our people visit at-risk households in person before disconnection. In 2025, they reached 46,300 homes, and more than half of those customers stayed connected. A conversation on the doorstep, before the power goes off, can open up a way forward. Connection is at the heart of it: staying connected to your power, and assurance that someone cares.
On Tuesday 13 October, our EnergyAssist team won the Customer Experience award at the Australian Financial Review Energy Awards in Sydney. The award celebrates organisations raising the bar in customer experience and service. I’m proud of our team, and what this recognition really says is that customers can feel valued and confident to move forward.
The team handled more than 240,000 calls and delivered $29 million in direct support. And 80 percent of customers supported by EnergyAssist met their agreed payment plans. That’s what happens when people are prepared and have a plan that is built around real life.
Behind every number is a person
Numbers can only say so much. Behind each one is a conversation, on the phone or at the door, often on someone’s hardest day.
When someone reaches out, our people take a breath, they listen and they don’t judge. Then they work with the person on the other end of the phone to find a way forward that makes them feel safe and heard.
Jess Shipway, our customer affordability leader, sees the difference up close. “It could be a 20-minute call, but the impact of that call can last for years,” says Jess. It’s the moment someone feels heard, feels that somebody cares, and is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. They carry that into the next challenge, and the one after that.
Sometimes the difference is small, but it’s life-changing. We hear conversations where $10 changes a person’s life. To us, it’s not a transaction. This is their life.
A payment plan can’t fix everything, and we won’t pretend otherwise. But being met with respect can change how it feels to ask for help. Everyone deserves the same support, no matter who they get their energy from, and we want to help set that standard across the industry.
Keeping the lights on is where it starts. What we’re really after is the feeling that comes next: the pressure easing, the road ahead opening up, the sense that you’re good to go. Assured that the power is staying on. Valued as a person, not a transaction. Prepared for whatever comes next.
If it’s getting hard, reach out early
If you’re finding it hard to pay your energy bill, please contact us early at Hardship policy | EnergyAustralia. You’ll be speaking with people who listen without judgement. We want to help you get back on track, and back to feeling good to go.
