As we brace for an extended period of impacts on our way of life as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the team at GloBird Energy encourages everyone to look after themselves and their loved ones and to be as supportive of others in the community as you’re able to be.
We think it’s important that we keep in mind that there are people in our society who are more vulnerable than others, not only from a health perspective – as important as that is – but also in terms of their ability to get food and other necessities.
Not everyone can easily pop down to the shops at any time so, if possible, keep in mind your elderly neighbours in case you can pick up some essentials for them on your travels.
It’s certainly a challenging time, and one of the main challenges we all face – and we can see the Federal and State governments already grappling with this – is trying to balance the public health priorities with economic realities.
Every business wants to keep operating as normally as possible so that the fewest workers are impacted by reduced hours, stand downs, and loss of income, and so that everyone can get back to business once we get through the worst of what’s to come.
The impact on the service we offer
We have some staff members who have been stuck overseas, some that are self-isolating, and others working from home. So, although we are doing all we can to maintain the level of service we know you expect and deserve, you might notice our call wait times being a bit longer than normal.
We are taking measures to minimise any impacts on our service to you, however we ask that you please be patient if you do need to contact our support team. There have been some unusual peaks of demand for support already, and that might continue, but please be assured that customer service remains a high priority.
We’d appreciate if you could use our online chat functionality (which you can find in the bottom righthand corner of our website) for any non-urgent enquiries or the cs@globirdenergy.com.au email address for anything that’s not particularly time-sensitive.
Of course, still call us on 133 456 or 03 8560 4199 if you prefer to speak to one of our local customer service operators directly, especially if you have an urgent or safety-related query.
Will electricity or gas supply be impacted?
At this stage, our advice is that energy supplies are unlikely to be significantly impacted by any anticipated knock-on effects of the COVID-19 situation.
In fact, the security of supply to domestic customers could be more certain, given some commercial and industrial users will be using less, as they’re forced to reduce their regular operations.
There is, of course, some risk that skilled operators in the energy sector will be diagnosed with the virus and forced to self-isolate. But it’s good to know that the major generators are fine-tuning their well-developed contingency plans to ensure any forced absences from the workplace don’t impact their ability to keep operating.
We will continue to connect new customers, as usual (although with no handshaking!).
Your budgeting might change
You may have already considered this, but if you and your family are going to be spending more time at home over the coming months, particularly through winter, with greater use of everything from televisions to gaming consoles and from kettles and microwave ovens to heaters, it’s likely that your usage might go up, and this will inevitably flow through to your bills.
At the same time, your overall household costs might end up being lower than usual, given there will be fewer opportunities to go out for entertainment. Stan and Netflix can be cheaper than taking the family to the cinema, and home cooking generally costs less than eating out.
Regardless, we hope that your electricity and gas bills will remain reasonable (if you’re a GloBird customer, you are already getting some of the cheapest electricity and gas available). Spending more time at home can be a good opportunity to look at the way you use power. You might be able to implement some of Our 12 top tips for saving energy in summer or Our top 10 winter energy-saving tips.
If you’re on a time-of-use tariff, consider moving more of your usage to the off-peak times. Think about ways to optimise appliance use. For example, make sure you fill the dishwasher or washing machine before use. It costs the same per wash for a half-full dishwasher as a full one.
Hang in there
While things are likely to get tough, even if no-one in your family gets too sick, at least we are all forewarned and able to start preparing and making some adjustments.
Hopefully it’s also comforting to know that we’re all in it together and some concessions will be made.
We expect the government to announce further economic stimulus measures, as well as assistance for businesses and individuals, as they don’t want a temporary slowdown to permanently impact credit ratings and future viability.
Keep in mind that this is a temporary event. It will pass, we will come out the other side, and things will eventually get back to normal.
In the meantime, try not to let stress and anxiety make a difficult situation even harder to navigate.