FAQs

Trees growing into or falling onto powerlines pose a significant safety, bushfire, and power supply risk to our community.

Essential Energy and landowners have shared responsibilities under the NSW Electricity Supply Act 1995 for preventing trees from impacting electricity network operation.

Most trees near the electricity network are trimmed using arborist techniques. This can include removal of tree limbs or complete trees.

Trees are removed where:

• It is necessary to protect the powerlines or safety of the community or surrounding property near the network.
• Alternatives (such as undergrounding or moving the powerline) are known to not be feasible.
• Acting in accordance with our Vegetation Management Plan.
• Where qualified arborists have determined a tree is unhealthy and poses a heightened risk of falling into the powerline.
• Where trimming to achieve the minimum clearance space will cause a tree to become unstable. In these cases it is safer to remove the whole tree.

Where a tree must be removed, Essential Energy uses qualified vegetation management specialists from authorised contractors to consult with the tree owner to explain why and how the tree removal must occur.

Tree removal must be undertaken in a safe manner, sometimes this requires the power to be turned off to ensure everyone’s safety.

Inspection cycles times vary from 12 months to 60 months and are dependent upon factors such as vegetation growth rate, bushfire risk, climate, and type of vegetation.

High bushfire risk areas are aerially inspected once per year.

Essential Energy will advise the landholder if vegetation is identified as encroaching upon or has the potential to encroach upon minimum safe vegetation clearances.

Notification of intended vegetation works may include:

• An initial site inspection to scope required works
• Advice with the landowner, either verbal or by notification letter, regarding the scope of work
• Notification letters to provide advice of work required and relevant contact details
• Landowner notification is provided for works involving tree removal or chemical application and consent is sought prior to work commencing.

Essential Energy will work with councils to ensure effective vegetation management in the best interests of the community as a whole.  Essential Energy will consult with councils where specific street trees are identified for removal.

With our climate changing, Essential Energy has recently partnered with the University of Melbourne to proactively update its bushfire risk modelling, ensuring we are doing everything we can to target our bushfire mitigation activities.

Our new modelling has highlighted some new areas with increased bushfire risk – particularly in the state’s Mid North Coast. We’re updating our vegetation management and asset management processes in these areas to manage the risk.

In some areas, we will need to remove more vegetation than we have before – we’re doing this to reduce the risk of bushfires and to protect the community and the environment where bushfire risk is heightened.

Essential Energy also has a proactive program of replacing timber poles with composite poles, installing stand-alone power systems to enable the retirement of powerlines in remote high fire risk areas, and providing enhanced network protection schemes on heightened fire risk days.

In rural areas with heightened bushfire risk, Essential Energy is required to clear more vegetation than in other areas. Some trees may need to be completely removed to achieve this.

Our additional vegetation maintenance activities as a result of this project are targeted in locations where, if a fire were to start, it has the potential to spread and cause widespread damage to the broader community. This does not necessarily mean that your property is at heightened risk of impact from a bushfire.

Essential Energy has a rigorous Pre Summer Bushfire Inspection program (PSBI) where the power network is aerially inspected using technology that identifies parts of the electricity network where asset maintenance or vegetation management is needed. This program is conducted annually.