Short delay to Standard Connections go-live in the Essential Connections solution

As you know, we have been preparing the implementation of our new solution, which will support the design and construction phases of the end-to-end connections process to be managed in the Essential Connections portal. Whilst the project was working towards Monday 10 October 2022 to roll out the Standard Connections process, additional testing activities are required to resolve the defects identified and enable a smooth transition to the new solution for our customers.

What do you need to know?

We are now working towards Monday 24 October 2022 as our revised go-live date. In line with this decision, the current design portal will be suspended from Tuesday, 18 October 2022 at 5pm and you will be unable to add to or access your design information until the new Essential Connections portal is up and running on Monday 24 October 2022. This means that your existing design data will be migrated to the new portal.

What happens next?

Our weekly ASP information sessions remain in place to keep you abreast of any updates and answer any questions you may have.

For Level 3 ASPs, training sessions initially scheduled from 12th to 20th October 2022 will be rescheduled to take place after go-live. Please look out for updated calendar invitations which will be sent to you shortly.

For Level 1 ASPs, training sessions will be scheduled to take place after go live. Please look out for calendar invitations over the next couple of months.

Thanks again for your understanding and continuous support during the transition period.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

Weekly Update on Essential Connections

As we get closer to go-live on 10th October 2022, we highly recommend that you attend a session to ask any questions you may have.

Please find attached the Essential Connections overview presented during the weekly update session. If you missed out or would like to revisit any of the information, click on the Essential Connections Information Session to view the Recording and the ASP information session.

The next session will be as follows:

Follow this link to Join Zoom Meeting.

Training

A reminder of the Design training that is available to support you in using Essential Connections. The sessions in October will be more detailed and you will have the opportunity to go into the system.

The training pack and recording will be shared at the conclusion of the design sessions next week.

Please note that Construction Training targeting L1 ASPs will be scheduled at a later date.

Cases in previous Connections portal

If you have existing applications in the previous Connections portal, you will require an Essential Connections Number (ECN) and a new case number so that you can access these cases within the new Essential Connections Portal.

You will receive an email on 10th October 2022 that will provide you with the ECNs that have been created for your current application cases.

If you have any issues with these numbers, please contact aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

Transitions Activity

As a reminder, from 5th October 2022:

• The current design portal will no longer be accessible.
• There will be a freeze on design DIAs, design submissions, asset label requests, non-standard approvals and recertification's (that are not in the contestable works system).
• No new DIA jobs will be accepted via the contestable works email.

Continue to submit easements and pioneer scheme cases until 10th October 2022 via email – then it will move to the Essential Connections Portal.

Any activity currently submitted and started via the contestable works email will continue in that system until completion of the project.

OKTA Passwords

We are serious about cybersecurity at Essential Energy and to keep our customers, partners and employees cybersafe, we have specific requirements for passwords. All passwords, including for OKTA, need to be 12 digits in length and have a combination of numbers, special characters and upper and lower case letters. Given this makes passwords more secure, they will only need to be updated annually.

Check out these interesting stats:

Devices

Tablets and phones can be used in the field for interfacing with Essential Connections and Youreka.

When we go live with Construction all Level1 Asps will require access to smart devices in the field – smart phone; i-pad/tablet and/or laptops as it will not be possible to submit any project information via any mechanism other than Salesforce. Yureka, the on-line/off-line form

Readiness Survey

A reminder: Please complete the readiness survey. This helps us to understand how confident you are feeling in using the new system and ways of working. Access the survey readiness survey. It only takes 2 minutes!

What do you need to do?

1. Review the attached overview presentation and watch the session recording by clicking on the Essential Connections Information Session.
2. Complete the readiness survey.
3. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
4. View this communication via Essential Engagement.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

Weekly Update on Essential Connections

Please find attached the Essential Connections overview presented during the weekly update session. If you missed out or would like to revisit any of the information, click on the Essential Connections Information Session to view the recording and the ASP information session.

The next session will be as follows:

Follow this link to Join Zoom Meeting.

Training

A reminder of the Design training that is available to support you in using Essential Connections. Please note that Construction Training targeting Level 1 ASPs will be scheduled at a later date.

NOTE: the Design training is not restricted to Level 3 ASPs – If you are an Level 1 ASP but work intensively in the Design submission process please feel free to register and attend.

The training pack and recording will be shared at the conclusion of the design sessions next week.

Transition to Essential Connections

As a result of the updated go-live dates, cutover dates will move. We are working towards a new cutover date of 5th October 2022 (commencement of the transition to the new solution) and will confirm this date next week.

As we transition data to the new Essential Connections Portal, the below activities will cease or change between 5th and 10th October 2022. See the below image for detail.

Easements

The following information will be sent to law societies and frequent legal representatives that submit easement cases. A user guide will be uploaded to the website and shared with you prior to go-live.

Essential Energy is introducing the Essential Connections Portal, a self-service portal for all customers and their representatives to:

• Submit documentation for Easements.
• Make upfront payments with the easy-to-use online payment gateway.

Before you can access the portal, make an enquiry, submit information, or submit easement documents, you will be required to register and activate an account with Essential Energy.

To create a new account, head to the Essential Connections Registration page on the Essential Energy website. How to Video Guide will assist you – follow the ‘Customers’ menu.

Readiness Survey

A reminder: Please complete the readiness survey. This helps us to understand how confident you are feeling in using the new system and ways of working. Access the survey readiness survey. It only takes 2 minutes!

What do you need to do?

1. Review the transition information and ASP session information pack and recording.
2. Complete the readiness survey.
3. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

Short delay to Standard Connections go live in the Essential Connections solution

As you know, we have been preparing the implementation of our new solution, which will support the design and construction phases of the end-to-end connections process to be managed in the Essential Connections portal. Whilst the project was looking to roll out the Standard Connections process on 26th September, testing activities have identified the requirement to resolve a number of defects prior to go live to enable a successful transition to the new solution which will benefit our customers.

We are now working towards Monday 10th October as our revised go-live date and are confident that this additional time will allow for less disruption for our customers' day-to-day business.

What does this mean for you?

For now, you will continue operating as usual until we are ready to implement the solution. We are hoping that this extra time will allow you to continue attending information and training sessions to get familiar with the system and ask us any questions you may have. Please find below the details of any upcoming sessions for Level 1 & 3 ASPs.

What happens next?

We encourage you to attend one of the following training sessions to help you get familiar with the Essential Connections portal. We are here to answer any questions and will provide you with further updates in our scheduled opt-in sessions. Thank you for your understanding and continuous support during the transition period.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au

Weekly Update on Essential Connections

Please find attached the Essential Connections overview presented during the weekly update session. If you missed out or would like to revisit any of the information, click on the Essential Connections Information Session to view the recording and the ASP information session.

The next session will be as follows:

Follow this link to Join Zoom Meeting.

Training

A reminder of the training that is available to support you in using Essential Connections including sessions that have been added for L1ASPs.

Transition to Essential Connections

As a reminder, as of 14th September, you are no longer able to:

• Use the Design Portal for design enquiries, general enquiries, closed project enquiries, easement only requests and Notice of Arrangement (NoA) only requests.
• Submit enquiries or applications through the NECF Portal.

Alternative arrangements are in place until the new Essential Connections portal is live on 27th September.

As we transition data to the new Essential Connections Portal, certain activity will cease or change between 21st and 27th September. See the below image.

Readiness Survey

A reminder: Please complete the readiness survey. This helps us to understand how confident you are feeling in using the new system and ways of working. Access via readiness survey. It only takes 2 minutes!

What do you need to do?

1. Review the transition information and ASP session information pack and recording.
2. Complete the readiness survey.
3. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

New ARTC design specification for overhead rail crossings

Earlier this year, the ARTC published a new design specification EEG-00-01 Requirements for Electric Aerials Crossing ARTC Infrastructure. The new document now replaces the former PYS 02 specification.

EEG-00-01 modernises ARTC specifications, aligns design requirements with AS/NZS 7000, simplifies the design process and compliance and improves construction outcomes.

For example, Essential Energy’s standard Wind Return Periods (see minimum below) and strength reduction can now be used. Interpretation and application of the old PYS 02 ‘Factors of Safety’ is no longer required.

Key changes include:

• A minimum 100 year Wind Return Period (WRP) can be used for lines up to 66kV. A 400 year WRP is required for 132kV and above.
• Essential Energy’s standard strength reduction factors apply. This means it is no longer necessary to create separate Neara models to assess rail crossing spans.
• Crossarms supporting crossing spans can now be attached with eyebolts. The requirements to band crossarms to poles has been removed.
• It is no longer necessary to concrete timber pole foundations (in fact, Section 3.2 forbids it).
• Composite poles and crossarms can officially be used

UGL Regional Linx requirements.

UGL Regional Linx has replaced John Holland Rail as operator of Transport for NSW’s Country Regional Network.

UGL has a general and overarching design specification CRN CS 540 Service Installations in the Rail Corridor. However, they do not have specific design criteria for overhead powerline designs which cross their rail corridor. Its requirements are as per CRN CS 540 Clause 5.3.1 General:

‘Aerial crossings for electrical, telecommunications and other utilities shall be designed and installed in accordance with relevant industry and Australian Standards.’

We have confirmed that UGL will be satisfied if designs are compliant with both the ARTC’s EEG-00-01 specification, and Essential Energy design and construction standards (which also comply with AS/NZS 7000). This effectively makes the design requirements for both ARTC and UGL jurisdictions the same. (Please note that VicTrack and Queensland Rail have separate requirements.)

Updates to standards:

In the coming months, we will update:

• our design manuals, including CEOM7097, CEOM7081 and relevant standard construction drawings
• rail specific information in the Neara Environments spreadsheet.

Reminder for design certifications that contain rail crossings.

Any design that contains a rail crossing will need to be approved by the relevant rail authority. Please submit your compliant plan to Essential Energy for ‘Endorsement’ prior to submitting your application to the rail authority. Our Design and Certification Officer will stamp the plan and return it to you to forward it on.

Once ‘In Principle’ approval is obtained from the rail authority, you can submit this to Essential Energy and we will finalise the certification and stamp the plan as ‘Certified’.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above and start using the new standards in your design. Inflight projects that have not been submitted should be converted to the new standards. There is no requirement to amend current certified designs.
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
3. View this communication via Essential Engagement

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au

Weekly Update on Essential Connections

Please find attached the Essential Connections overview presented during the weekly update session. If you missed out or would like to revisit any of the information, click on the Essential Connections Information Session to view the recording and the ASP information session presentation.

The next session will be as follows:

Here is a reminder of the Zoom link: Join Zoom Meeting.

Readiness Survey

Our readiness survey helps us to understand how confident you are feeling in using the new system and ways of working. If you have not had a chance to complete, please access readiness survey it takes 2 minutes to complete.

This will help us to make your experience as smooth as possible and tailor our approach to your needs so that you feel supported throughout the process.

Training

To support you in using Essential Connections, we’ve organised training sessions that you can attend. The first sessions are targeted at L3 ASPs. We’ll schedule additional sessions for L3 and L1 ASPs and will communicate these shortly.

These sessions run for one hour and will cover the following:

• Accessing and logging on to the portal
• Overview of the external portal
• Overview of system functionality, tips and tricks to navigate the system including case creation and management

Transition to Essential Connections

Before we go live with undertaking Design and Construction processes in Essential Connections, we will undertake a series of activities during a period called ‘cutover’. This is where we prepare to transition from the Design Portal (used by Level 3 ASPs) to the new Essential Connections Portal.

During this period there are some key dates when we need to complete or stop doing activities in the Design Portal. At present we are aiming to commence our transition into the new Essential Connections Portal from 5pm, Wednesday 21 September until 9am on Tuesday, 27 September. During this time, you will be unable to submit any documentation or work within the Design Portal.

These are the key dates and activities from 14 September that you need to be aware of:

Note: Previously submitted design enquiries are visible in the new Essential Connections Portal

This table outlines cutover arrangements for other activities from 20 September:

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above information
2. Complete the readiness survey
3. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

What is Happening?

Essential Energy has recently brought together our Contestable Design and Distribution Connections Planning teams under our Contestable Network Solutions Manager.

What are the benefits?

This will improve customer experience and reduce assessment timeframes through:

1. A dedicated manager for distribution connections, who will support teams, streamline processes, and proactively promote great customer service
2. A single point of contact for managing distribution-related design phase escalations
3. Faster network planning decisions, based on current and short-term state of the network.

Escalation process

If you have a complaint or enquiry, please follow the Contestable Work’s escalation process.

1. Contact the Design and Certification Officer with the initial request to escalate an issue
2. The Design and Certification Officers will instruct the Team Leader to call you.
3. If the Team Leader cannot resolve the issue, Glenn Leman will make a call.
4. If Glenn needs to escalate, he will brief Paul Thompson.
5. Paul Thompson will call to discuss the issue and aim to resolve it.
6. If you remain dissatisfied, David Shepherd (Group Head Network Investment and Maintenance) will make a final determination.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above and ensure you update your contacts in email and phone.
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
3. View this communication via Essential Engagement.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au

Access our Essential Connections information sessions

Thanks to those of you who attended the information session on Essential Connections, If you missed out, or would like to revisit any of the information, you can click on Essential Connections Information Session to view the session recording and the ASP information session presentation.

Our next session will take place on Wednesday 7th September 8:30 am - 9:30 am and focus on the following:

We’ll continue to walk through the end-to-end process and key changes in subsequent sessions.

Here is a reminder of the Zoom link: Join Zoom Meeting.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the overview presentation and watch the session recording by clicking on the Essential Connections Information Session.
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

What is Happening?

Essential Energy is working to improve customer experiences across the end-to-end connections process by upgrading technology and improving processes. Improvements include the new Essential Connections self-service portal, which will be live from Monday 6 June 2022.

All Low Voltage (LV) connection enquiries and applications are to be created and submitted through the new portal from Monday 6 June 2022.

All High Voltage (HV) enquiries, applications, design, construction, testing and quality assurance processes will be transitioned to Essential Connections in future phases of the project.

Changes from the current Low Voltage enquiry and application forms

The new Essential Connections portal will be your one-stop-shop for all your enquiries and applications.

The portal will automate many manual processes. It will also integrate with other systems to provide data from organisations such as Spatial Services NSW (address validation and auto-population of lot/DP) and the Clean Energy Council (inverter and battery lists) to help you complete your applications.

Other exciting changes coming with the release of Essential Connections include:

• new and more targeted application categories, such as load only, generation only, load and generation, temporary builders supply, unmetered supply and asset relocation
• email/SMS notifications for job progress (no more calling Essential Energy for updates)
• electronic signature for Connection Offer acceptance (no more printing and signing)
• standard connections are automatically approved
• easy-to-use online payment gateway for upfront payments
• knowledge articles on the Essential Energy website to help you use and understand the new portal.

Getting ready for Monday 6 June 2022

Read only access to Connections web portal from Wednesday 1 June to Monday 6 June (no applications can be submitted from midday Wednesday 1 June).

From midday Wednesday 1 June, connection enquiries and applications will no longer be submitted via the Connections web portal, while we switch over to the new Essential Connections portal, which is scheduled to be released on Monday 6 June.

Registered users will still be able to log in with read only access to view applications previously submitted.

Activating your Essential Connections account for Level 1 & 2 ASPs and ECs (Level 3 ASPs will use that same access as the BetterConnect portal)

Before you can access the Essential Connections portal and submit enquiries and applications, you will need to activate your account.

On Sunday 5 June, you will receive a welcome email from our secure access management provider OKTA with a link through to the essential connections portal

Note: Solar Retailers need to self-register via the Essential Energy website to use the new Essential Connections portal. Registration will be available on Monday 6 June.

Introduction of fees and upfront payment

The Essential Connections portal enables Essential Energy to charge for Ancillary Network Services (ANS) fees, as required by the Australian Energy Regulator. Up until now, we have not charged for some of these fees, as our systems did not support such charging. To find out more, read introduction of new fees and upfront payment on Essential Engagement.

We previously communicated that ANS fees and upfront payment were scheduled to be charged from Monday 16 May. The new date is 6 June, to align with the release of the Essential Connections portal.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above, watch the video by click on Essential Connections Portal preview and look out for your activation email on 5 June 2022.
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.