The Economic Regulation Authority has issued Synergy with a compliance enforcement notice for breaching its obligations under the Code of Conduct for the Supply of Electricity Customers 2022.
Synergy’s breach is for failing to notify customers of overcharges on closed accounts within 10 business days of becoming aware of those overcharges.
Specifically, Synergy continued to accept Centrepay payments from 2,845 customers after they had closed their Synergy accounts.
Centrepay is a service used by some Centrelink customers to organise automatic deductions from their support payments for goods and services, including utility bills.
In this situation, Synergy continued to collect automatic deductions despite customers no longer receiving electricity.
Due to amendments made to the Code of Conduct’s overcharging provisions in February 2023, our compliance enforcement notice only applies to 459 affected Centrepay customers, who collectively are owed $239,250 in payments.
However, we believe that 2,845 customers have been impacted in total, dating back to 2009, with almost $2.29 million owed.
Synergy started contacting all affected customers in April 2025, and has so far paid back around 30 per cent of the money owed.