What is Happening?

To enable Essential Energy to transition to a new, upgraded financial system in mid-August 2021, we need to pause External Sales quotations and orders between 10 July 2021 and 16 August 2021.

No External Sales orders or quotations will be processed during this period.

What do you need to do?

1. Please ensure your jobs and required orders are planned ahead to cover a minimum four-week period.
2. All orders covering this period must be submitted by Friday, 9 July 2021.
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 produced a new procedure for its workers providing guidance on handling Overhead Conductors whilst on the ground.

ASP Companies should review their own Safety Management Systems (SMS) to ensure they adequately address the hazards for workers who may handle overhead conductors from the ground, even under Access Permit conditions.

What do you need to do?

1. Download and review Safety Brief – SB-982_ASP Handling OH Conductors Whilst on the Ground on the Document Library and Essential Engagement.
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?

After some recent incidents and inquiries from the ASP forums Essential Energy would like to inform Accredited Service Providers (ASPs) of their responsibilities

• Part 3 of the Electricity Supply Act 1995 (the Act), Section 31A, a person who provides contestable network services must be accredited, in accordance with the Electricity Supply (Safety and Network Management) Regulation 2014, to provide those services (an ASP).
• The NSW Accredited Service Provider (ASP) Scheme Rules (Scheme Rules) details the requirements for a Company/Business to be accredited and a worker to be registered under a Company/Business accreditation.
• Once an individual and or company (Business) is accredited as an ASP, any person engaged to carry out contestable work on behalf of that ASP must be:
  • Registered with the ASP Scheme, and
  • Authorised by the relevant local distributor to perform contestable network service.

Accreditation is not transferable. Therefore, if an ASP changes to operate under a new ACN, the new company will be required to make a new application to be accredited under the ASP Scheme.

All ASPs are required to register with the Scheme any personnel who will be performing work on or near existing electricity network on behalf of the ASP and for which the ASP is accredited.

An ASP must notify the Scheme of changes in staff. Personnel, including employees and sub-contractors, will not be able to be authorised by the local electricity distributor until they have been registered by the Scheme.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above and ensure all workers are registered and authorised before undertaking contestable works.
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?

The regulator mounting platform assembly Cat No 115526 item 3 bracket below has been changed to improve the bolted connection design.

The HV regulator construction drawings in Section CEOM7104 of the Overhead Construction Manual have been updated for this change and use 4 x M24 kingbolts in place of the previously used threaded rod to attach the brackets to the pole.

The latest construction drawings are now available on Essential Energy’s Document Library.

What do you need to do?

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?

The AER has approved Essential Energy’s new regulatory charges for Ancillary Network Services from 1 July 2021.

As an Accredited Service Provider (ASP), Authorised Person (AUP) or Electrical Contractor (EC), please use the new charges applicable to the services you provide when preparing quotations for work to be undertaken after 30 June 2021.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the 2021-22 Pricing Schedules for Ancillary Network Services available on the Essential Energy website
2. Accredited Service Providers, Authorised Persons and Electrical Contractors should consider pricing changes when preparing quotations for customers regarding future work
3. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further information

You can read more about Essential Energy’s Ancillary Network Services pricing on our website at: Essential Energy > Our Network > Network Pricing and Regulatory report > Network.

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

What is happening?

From 24 May 2021, all new low voltage customer switchboards with ratings of more than 100A per phase must comply with AS/NZ 61439.

Non-compliant submissions for Essential Energy review of switchboards more than 100A will be returned for revision.

To ensure your compliance and avoid processing delays, please familiarise yourself with standard AS/NZ 61439.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above key changes in AS/NZ 61439 and submit switchboards for review to: switchboard.review@essentialenergy.com.au.
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au or contact your local Network Assurance Facilitator.

What is Happening?

This Safety Brief relates to two separate incidents below:

INC68429: Redmond Gary Elevated Work Platform (EWP) was being operated on a fault and emergency job on replacing lightning arrestors when the two employees aloft noticed clunking noises coming from the Fly Boom knuckle area. Employees grounded the EWP to check and found that one of the cylinder pins in the fly boom was dislodged. The pre-operation inspection completed did not reveal any issues with the Fly Boom knuckle.

INC68386: Whilst cutting trees the operators heard fibreglass scratching and cracking, when the Redmond Gary EWP fly boom was raised. After further inspection and removing guards, it was found that the pin that holds the fly boom to the hydraulic cylinder had worked its way loose.

What do you need to do?

1. Download and review Safety Brief – SB-976_ASP Redmond Gary EWP Fly Boom Cylinder Pins located on the Document Library and Essential Engagement.
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?

To protect everyone’s health and safety, we’ll hold our next round of ASP engagement forums via Zoom, rather than face to face.

In this round, we’ll be covering a range of topics including safety, bushfire zoning and vegetation management, CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guidelines, inspection and assessment of ASP works. We will also be giving you an initiative updates on Design and Certification, Power Lines Pro and BetterConnect.

We encourage you to participate in these forums. You’ll have the opportunity to discuss our plans and initiatives, and to ask questions or raise issues with Essential Energy team members.

Dates and times

Click on one of the options below to reserve your preferred session (all sessions will have the same content).

• Session 1: Tuesday, 27 April 2021 at 5:00pm to 7:00pm
• Session 2: Thursday, 29 April 2021 at 5:00pm to 7:00pm
• Session 3: Tuesday, 4 May 2021 at 11:00am to 1:00pm

A confirmation email will be sent to you with the Zoom meeting details once you have registered.

What do you need to do?

1. Select the session date above and reserve your spot to attend one of our forums.
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’s revised CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guidelines contain a number of new and revised procedures.

Many of the changes to the procedures it describes have been informed through consultation with over thirty Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 ASPs in a series of workshops held between June and September 2020.

In response to their feedback, the content has been reorganised to support a logical, sequenced flow of information, and our network contestable works requirements and the steps involved in meeting those requirements have been made more explicit.

Please download the Guidelines from the document library and provide your comments and recommendations via email to aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.

We plan to introduce the new and revised procedures progressively, with full implementation by the end of this year. Updates will be provided regularly to all ASPs over the next few months as we implement the new and/or revised procedures.

Changes and where they are located in CEOP2015 are summarised below:

• revised process for the return of redundant materials (P19)
• requirements for switchboard approvals over 100 amps (P21)
• requirements for the return of meters to depots (P22)
• requirements for Level 3 ASPs to attend site to inform the design concept prior to submitting a design for certification (P24)
• requirements for the Level 3 ASPs to submit Site Specific Vegetation Management Plan for approval with their design certification request (P26)
• introduction of project start-up meetings at the commencement of construction for new contestable works projects (P31)
• revised process for requesting protection settings for LV/HV circuit breakers etc. and revised roles and responsibilities for the procurement and application of protection settings (P32)
• requirements for Level 1 ASPs to submit a registered surveyors advice confirming the assets have been installed within an Easement (P32)
• revised process for managing non-conformances on the network including the option of appealing any issued non-conformance (P33)
• revised project close out process including the replacement of the Certificate of Acceptance with the Practical Completion Advice to indicate commencement of the warranty period at completion of construction (P35)
• requirements for Level 1 ASP to submit all required commissioning documentation – as built design, asset data capture and relevant test certificates - two days prior to commission unless the project is determined to be exempt (this will be agreed at project start up) (P36).

To support these revised processes, a number of changes have been made to the CEOF6012 Notice to Commence Construction and to the CEOF6013 Request for Outage:

• Protection Setting Advice (PSA) specifications table removed from CEOF6012 and moved to CEOF6013
• Schedule of Key Dates table updated in CEOF6012 to include a drop down of key project milestones.

The Certificate of Acceptance has been superseded by the Certificate of Practical Completion.

ASP Forums

We also encourage you to attend our ASP Forums, planned for late April early May 2021, and bring to those forums any ideas or suggestions you have regarding the implementation of these processes. More details regarding the 2021 ASP Forums will be provided in the coming weeks.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above and download the latest version of CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guideline from the Document Library.
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?

One of our employees who recently attended a venue in Byron Bay last night tested positive for COVID-19. The employee had checked into the venue, isn’t displaying any COVID-19 symptoms and has followed our COVID-19 protocols and all directions from NSW Health.

We are in close communication with the employee to provide support and employees identified as close contacts have been informed and are currently isolating.

Given these events Essential Energy is making some immediate changes to our operations today. This includes:

• Closure of the Ewingsdale (Byron Bay), Ballina and Lismore depots for additional cleaning of premises and vehicles. No employees, contractors or ASPs are to enter these three depots, under any circumstance, until further notice
• Any redundant materials must be stored correctly and can be returned to an appropriate & open depot
• All planned outages in Ballina, Ewingsdale and Lismore have been postponed for the rest of this week
• Prohibition of movement between Essential Energy locations for the two weeks until 14 April.

Visitors to any Essential Energy site must check in using a QR code and we are using this detail to contact all people who have visited the Ballina, Ewingsdale and Lismore depots since the weekend. We are also working with NSW Health to ensure they have any further information they need.

The safety of our people and the community is our highest priority, and we believe the steps we have taken are necessary to minimise the impact and spread of COVID-19. These steps are designed to ensure we can continue to operate the network safely and ensure staff are available to respond to fault and emergency situations.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely, including NSW Health and government advice. Further information will be provided as required. If you have any questions please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au