Victoria does concessions a little differently
Victoria's energy help is built around concessions that scale with your bill rather than fixed lump sums, plus periodic bonus schemes that reward households for comparing offers. The best-known of these has been the Power Saving Bonus — a one-off payment for households that used the state's official comparison service to check their energy deal. Bonus schemes like this come and go, so always confirm whether one is currently open before you count on it.
The ongoing help sits in the Victorian energy concessions, most of which are percentage-based. Instead of a flat annual credit, a percentage concession takes a slice off your usage costs above a threshold — which means the more you spend on energy, the more the concession is worth. This design is meant to protect households hit hardest by high winter bills.
The main Victorian concessions
- Annual Electricity Concession
- A percentage discount off electricity usage and supply costs above a set daily threshold, for holders of an eligible concession card — applied all year.
- Winter Gas Concession
- A seasonal percentage concession on gas usage over the winter months, when heating drives gas bills up.
- Medical Cooling Concession
- A summer discount on electricity for households where someone has a qualifying medical condition affected by heat, to help cover cooling costs.
- Life Support Concession
- Help for households running approved life-support machines such as dialysis or oxygen concentrators, based on the equipment.
- Utility Relief Grant
- A grant for people facing a temporary financial crisis who cannot pay a current bill, helping avoid disconnection.
- Compare-and-save bonus
- Periodic one-off payments (such as the Power Saving Bonus) for households that check their deal through the state comparison service — availability varies over time.
How to claim in Victoria
- Confirm you hold an eligible card — commonly a Pensioner Concession Card, Health Care Card or DVA Gold Card.
- Give your concession card details to your electricity and gas retailer so the ongoing concessions are applied to each bill automatically.
- For the Medical Cooling or Life Support concessions, submit the relevant medical or equipment form to your retailer.
- If you are behind on a bill and in hardship, ask about the Utility Relief Grant Scheme through your retailer or a support agency.
- Check whether a compare-and-save bonus is currently open on the official Victorian energy website, and follow its steps if so.
Why comparing still matters most
Because Victoria's concessions are percentage-based, a lower underlying bill means the concession stretches further per dollar you actually spend — but it also means an expensive plan quietly costs you more even after the concession. The concession never fixes a bad rate; it just shares a bit of the pain.
EnergySorted is independent and earns no retailer commissions, so its job is simply to find the cheapest plan for your real Victorian usage across more than 16,000 offers. Pair that with your concessions, keep an eye on your Bill Health Score, and you get the full benefit: the right plan first, then every concession stacked on top.