{"id":520135,"date":"2026-03-05T10:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520135\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:55:11","slug":"jacana-customers-in-alice-springs-report-electricity-bill-issues-after-months-of-silence-from-provider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520135\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacana customers in Alice Springs report electricity bill issues after months of silence from provider"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a sweltering January day in the Central Australian outback, Jo Herd was home from work with a fever when her power cut off without warning.<\/p>\n

The Alice Springs resident had not received any bills from energy provider Jacana in the six months before her electricity was unexpectedly switched off.<\/p>\n

Nauseated and vomiting while trying to get her power restored, Ms Herd said she was handballed between Jacana and distributer Power and Water Corporation (PWC).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jo Herd says having her electricity disconnected without warning was “pretty disgusting”. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

Both Jacana and PWC are Northern Territory government-owned corporations, with the Jacana’s customer base much larger than the NT’s only other energy retailer, private firm Rimfire Energy.<\/p>\n

“To be disconnected with no attempt at trying to contact me \u2014 not via phone, not via email, not via letter, anything \u2014 I think it’s pretty disgusting,” Ms Herd said.<\/p>\n

“We’d already put the money aside, but I know that there’s plenty of people who are not in a financial position to be able to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When [the bill] does come, it’s a bit of a shock.”<\/p>\n

\"Wide<\/p>\n

Several Alice Springs locals have reported billing issues associated with energy provider Jacana. (ABC News: William Green)<\/p>\n

Dozens of other Alice Springs residents have also contacted the ABC about billing issues with Jacana.<\/p>\n

Some reported not receiving a bill for 12 months, and then being threatened with power cuts unless they entered payment plans they said were unaffordable and overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Do you know more about this story?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get in touch with Elsie Lange<\/a> to share your story, contact us about the Northern Territory’s electricity sector: Lange.Elsie@abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Local mother Bethany Tudor-Cooper started an online petition, claiming she received a $4,400 bill<\/a> after 15 months of silence from Jacana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said, despite the retailer admitting fault, Jacana demanded she repay the bill at a rate she could not afford.<\/p>\n

With such little competition in the NT’s energy retail sector, multiple households told the ABC they felt trapped.<\/p>\n

Counsellor flags risk of ‘food security issues’<\/p>\n

Financial counselling service Lutheran Care has seen an increase in the number of Alice Springs residents seeking support for energy debts, according to the charity’s Central Australia operations manager Samarra McDonald.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Samarra McDonald says the number of clients seeking help with their electricity bills has been increasing. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

“[Clients are] coming in for our support, to help reconnect, to work on the debt, and [we] advocate on their behalf about what’s an appropriate amount to pay and what they can afford,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[Being disconnected] leads to other issues \u2026 you’re not able to put food in the fridge, that then leads to food security issues.<\/p>\n

“We can see and understand the impact that [energy debt is] having, and the increase for us to support is definitely there.”<\/p>\n

According to the latest report card from peak industry body Energy Consumers Australia<\/a> (ECA), Territorians are less satisfied with their energy providers than people in other Australian jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Research released by ECA in December found almost 20 per cent of NT households surveyed had reported contacting their provider about difficulties paying bills.<\/p>\n

Of the NT customers surveyed, 22 per cent said they were “somewhat” or “very dissatisfied” with payment support options offered by their energy retailer.<\/p>\n

‘Technical issues’ to blame<\/p>\n

In a statement, Jacana conceded “a small number” of customers received their bills late “due to technical issues” within the retailer’s billing processes last year \u2014 but the provider said those issues had since been resolved.<\/p>\n

However, multiple Alice Springs residents told the ABC Jacana had blamed PWC, saying the supplier was not providing meter readings on time.<\/p>\n

In response to the claim, a PWC spokesperson said the organisation provided metering data to retailers “within prescribed time frames”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PWC said delays had been experienced “in a small number of cases” due to “complexities associated with individual customers and system processes”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The provider said technical difficulties were linked to the billing delay some Jacana customers reported experiencing. (ABC News: William Green)<\/p>\n

“We are working with retailers to resolve outstanding matters as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Acting NT Ombudsman Bronwyn Haack said her office had seen “a modest increase” in complaints about Jacana and PWC following recent upgrades, including reports of billing delays.<\/p>\n

Customers wanting to switch providers to Rimfire would need a smart meter \u2014 which many local homes do not have, despite a push by PWC to install them across the NT.<\/p>\n

The PWC spokesperson said the company anticipated the smart meter installation program would be completed across the NT by 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a sweltering January day in the Central Australian outback, Jo Herd was home from work with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,13246,99,45019,259590,19161,259589,77266,1098,6091,173619,68887,209113,37042],"class_list":{"0":"post-520135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bills","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cut-off","13":"tag-disconnected","14":"tag-electricity","15":"tag-jacana","16":"tag-jacana-energy","17":"tag-nt","18":"tag-power","19":"tag-power-and-water","20":"tag-power-bill","21":"tag-power-water","22":"tag-shock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}