Victorian Excess Electricity Concession

Who Can Claim It

The Excess Electricity Concession is the high-usage cousin of the Annual Concession in the VIC Electricity Concession parent cluster. The same card list applies (PCC, HCC, DVA Gold), but the trigger is a financial threshold rather than a tariff structure.

The eligibility gate has four parts:

• Victorian residency - state = VIC.
• Qualifying concession card - concession_card_type IN {pensioner_concession_card, health_care_card, dva_gold_card}. Both standard and Low Income HCC are accepted.
• Named account holder - electricity_bill_account_holder = true.
• Annual cost threshold - annual_electricity_cost >= 3895.13. The threshold has been at this value since 1 December 2024 (DFFH reviews it each year). It is a 12-month rolling total of usage plus supply, GST inclusive.

The excludes.any block is empty, but the conflicts list pairs the rule with the Annual Electricity Concession - meaning the same dollar of electricity cost cannot collect both rebates. In practice the retailer pipelines them: dollars below $3,895.13 go to Annual at 17.5%; dollars above go to Excess at the formula. Required fields are state, concession_card_type, electricity_bill_account_holder, and annual_electricity_cost - the last of those is the only field that distinguishes this rule from the Annual Concession at submission time.

What You Get

The amount is a formula evaluated each bill. The DFFH form A = [17.5% × (B - C)] - (D × 0.0823) breaks down as:

• B = the dollars above the threshold for the billing month. If a quarterly bill is $1,400 and the running annual total has already exceeded $3,895.13, the entire $1,400 may be "B" for that bill.
• C = retailer credit. Any pay-on-time discount, marketing rebate or one-off retailer credit that applied to the bill is netted against B before the 17.5% runs.
• D = network correction factor measured in kWh, applied at $0.0823 per kWh. DFFH's worked example uses D = 88 kWh, producing a deduction of $7.24 from the gross 17.5% concession.
• 0.175 (17.5%) is the same rate as the Annual Concession, applied to (B - C) before the D-correction.

DFFH's published worked example: B = $560, C = $24.25, D = 88 kWh. A = (0.175 × ($560 - $24.25)) - (88 × 0.0823) = (0.175 × $535.75) - $7.24 = $93.76 - $7.24 = $86.52. The customer's bill that month therefore carries an Excess Concession credit of about $86.52, plus the standard Annual Concession on the dollars below the threshold, plus any controlled load rebate if applicable.

Annualised, a household with $5,500 of yearly electricity cost might receive roughly $280-$330 from the Annual Concession (on the $3,895.13 - $171.60 base) plus $250-$310 from the Excess formula on the dollars above the threshold, for a combined $530-$640 in concession credits across the year. The exact figures depend on consumption profile, retailer credits, and the kWh correction factor.

How To Apply

The application channel is retailer. The flow is unusual compared to other concessions because the retailer initiates the paperwork:

1. Your retailer's billing system tracks the rolling 12-month total. When you cross $3,895.13, the system flags the account.
2. The retailer mails (or emails) a pre-filled Excess Electricity Concession application form. You sign it, attach a copy of the concession card if not already on file, and return it within the deadline printed on the form.
3. Once the retailer processes the form, the Excess formula runs from the next bill. The rule does not back-pay the period between threshold crossing and form return - so opening the envelope matters.

Evidence is the same concession card plus the application form from the retailer. There is no medical certificate, no proof of consumption (the retailer already has the data), and no separate online portal - the whole flow is retailer-mediated.

Read the DFFH Excess Electricity Concession guidance

When You'll See It

The retailer's threshold check runs continuously, so a household that crosses $3,895.13 in late winter will typically receive the application form within four to six weeks, in time for the next quarterly bill cycle. The Excess credit then appears as a separate line on each subsequent bill, recalculated each month using the formula and that month's specific B, C and D values. Households whose consumption falls below the threshold in a future year stop receiving the Excess credit but keep the Annual Concession; the retailer does not require a fresh application if usage rises above the threshold again later, provided the card and account holder details have not changed.

One quirk: the formula's D-factor (network correction) can occasionally produce a negative A in months with very low excess usage but high marketing credit. In practice retailers floor the result at $0 for the bill - you will not see the Excess Concession reduce your concession from another rule.

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Mildura PCC household, all-electric large house

Wirimbirra, 70, holds a PCC and lives in a five-bedroom Mildura house with extended family - three generations, eight occupants in total. The property runs reverse-cycle heating in winter, ducted cooling in summer (Mildura summers exceed 38C for two weeks at a time), and an electric oven. Annual electricity cost: $5,800. Powercor flags the account in early September after the rolling total clears $3,895.13. Powercor's retailer Origin mails the form on 12 September; Wirimbirra returns it by 20 September. From the October bill the formula adds about $315 across the year on top of the Annual Concession's roughly $292. Combined annual saving $607.

Scenario 2: Geelong renter household, just below threshold

Dante, 58, holds an HCC and rents a 1970s brick veneer in Geelong with his wife and two teenage daughters. Annual electricity cost: $3,650 (reverse-cycle heating runs a lot in winter but the family uses gas hot water and gas cooking). Even though Dante passes every other gate, the rolling 12-month total stays $245 below the $3,895.13 threshold. AGL pays him only the Annual Concession (about $608 on the $3,478.40 base) and never mails the Excess form. To trigger Excess, consumption would need to rise by roughly 7% or the family would need to move to all-electric appliances after their current gas system fails.

Scenario 3: Springvale share house, account holder issue

Phong, 32, holds a Low Income HCC and lives in a Springvale share house with two other adults. The EnergyAustralia bill is in his housemate's name (the housemate set up the contract first when they all moved in). Combined household electricity cost is $4,200. Even though the threshold is met, Phong fails electricity_bill_account_holder = true because his housemate is the named account holder. EnergyAustralia confirms it cannot raise an Excess Concession against an account where the cardholder is not the named owner. Phong arranges a free name change to add himself to the account; the retailer's threshold tracker resets the rolling total against his card from the changeover date and mails the form once the threshold is crossed under his name - typically within the next quarter.

Scenario 4: Box Hill DVA Gold holder, life-support equipment user

Arjun, 64, holds a DVA Gold Card and runs a CPAP machine plus a domestic oxygen concentrator at his Box Hill property after a service-related lung condition. Annual electricity cost: $4,950 (the oxygen concentrator alone uses about 1,880 kWh per year on the legislated standard). Origin Energy mails him the Excess form three months into his card registration. The formula adds approximately $193 across the year on top of his Annual Concession of $828 ($3,723.53 base × 17.5%) and his Life Support Concession credit on the oxygen concentrator's 1,880 kWh. He does not need to choose between these rebates - they discount different bill components.

Common Mistakes

• Confusing Annual and Excess as the same rule: they are listed as conflicts in the YAML for a reason. Annual is 17.5% on dollars 1 to $3,895.13 (after the $171.60 carve-out); Excess is the formula on dollars above $3,895.13. Misreading the rebate as "33% off everything once you cross the threshold" doubles up where the YAML deliberately splits the dollars.
• Waiting for an automatic credit: unlike the Annual Concession, the Excess Concession requires returning the application form the retailer mails. Customers who toss the envelope assuming it is junk mail miss the discount until they call the retailer to request a fresh form. The rebate does not back-pay the gap.
• Treating the threshold as kWh: the trigger is $3,895.13 of annual electricity cost (usage plus supply, GST inclusive), not a kWh figure. Two households can have the same kWh consumption and end up on different sides of the threshold based on retailer plan, network charges and supply rate. Network upgrades that push supply charges above 90 c/day move many households into Excess territory without any change in usage.
• Assuming the formula is just 17.5% of the excess: the D × 0.0823 deduction is a network correction factor unique to this rule. DFFH's worked example shaves roughly 7-9% off the gross 17.5% calculation. Customers who expect a clean 17.5% sometimes complain to the retailer about a smaller-than-expected credit.
• Dropping below the threshold mid-year and assuming the rebate persists: if rolling 12-month cost falls below $3,895.13 the Excess Concession stops on the next bill. Households who installed solar mid-year and saw consumption drop are sometimes surprised when the Excess line item disappears - the Annual Concession continues, but the formula does not run on $0 of excess.
• Confusing this with the Excess Gas Concession: the Excess Gas Concession ($2,499.14 winter threshold) is a separate rule for the gas account. They share the architecture (retailer-triggered application, 17.5% on dollars above the threshold) but the threshold, the seasonal window and the supply network are different. Crossing the gas threshold does not automatically generate an electricity Excess form.

Related Victorian Energy Concessions

• Annual Electricity Concession (17.5%) - the base rebate on the dollars below $3,895.13. The two rules are listed as conflicts in the YAML so no dollar is discounted twice, but every Excess household also receives Annual on the lower portion.
• Controlled Load Electricity Concession (13%) - runs on a separate off-peak meter regardless of total bill size. Often the silent contributor when an all-electric house clears the Excess threshold (electric storage hot water can add 3,000-4,000 kWh per year).
• Medical Cooling Concession - layered on the November-April cooling-season general tariff for households with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's or another temperature-regulation condition. Frequent companion to Excess in inland Victoria where summer cooling drives consumption up.
• Winter Gas Concession - the gas-side seasonal rebate (1 May to 31 Oct). Households with gas heating typically stay below the electricity Excess threshold; all-electric households are far more likely to cross.
• Life Support Concession (mains electricity) - flat per-kWh credit for households running oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines, home dialysis or ventilators. The legislated kWh draw alone often pushes consumption past the Excess threshold.
• Non-Mains Energy Concession - the off-grid alternative for households on LPG, heating oil or firewood that have no metered electricity bill to apply the Excess formula against. Tiered $57 to $650 annual rebate.

Frequently Asked Questions