Drought Relief from Electricity Charges Scheme (DRECS)

This program aims to provide relief from supply charges on electricity accounts that are used to pump water for farm or irrigation purposes.

Financial assistance is available to account holders who do not have access to, or have severely restricted access to, farm or irrigation water in drought-declared areas, or properties that have been individually drought-declared.

For the purposes of this scheme a declaration of drought must be made under a Queensland Government administrative process.

Relief available are:
- Relief from supply charges for relevant electricity accounts applicable to the drought declaration period.
- Reimbursement of supply charge components of a customer's electricity bill which include:
a) Daily supply charge
b) Metering charge
c) Annual fixed charge (but excluding minimum demand charges)

For all non-farm or irrigation tariffs, the customer is required to provide a statutory declaration to support their claim, stating that the connection is being used primarily for farm or irrigation purposes.

Provided the drought declaration remains in place, the reimbursement applies to all supply charge components applicable to any account used for pumping water for farm or irrigation purposes. The reimbursement continues to apply until the drought declaration is revoked.

Customers seeking relief under this scheme must apply within six months of the invoice date on the electricity account for which relief is sought.

No maximum amount has been stated.

Eligible applicants must:
- Be a customer with a retail entity other than Ergon Energy Queensland Pty Ltd.
- Be a farmer of a property that has been individually drought declared or is within a drought declared area.
- Have no water to pump or severely restricted access to water.