What is Happening?

With the bushfire season commencing, it’s important to understand and incorporate risk mitigation strategies into our work activities to minimise potential impacts of bushfire on the community and comply with relevant legislation.

The official bushfire danger period for 2024-2025 commenced from 1 September 2024 in the Local Government Areas (LGAs) listed below.

The official bushfire danger period is expected to commence in remaining LGAs from 1 October 2024.

You and your customers can learn about bushfire and management strategies

The Get Ready Weekend, organised by the Rural Fire Service in NSW, aims to prepare locals for bush fire season with events in 500 locations. Main events are on 21-22 September 2024. Contact your local brigade for event details and check the related links for more information on fire preparedness and risk.

Please note: There may be a requirement for Essential Energy to review and possibly suspend requested outages in certain situations if bushfires hazards are severe.

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.

As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence protective industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.

The ETU has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Tuesday 17 September 2024, Wednesday 18 September 2024 and Thursday 19 September 2024.

Potential Impacts

The planned industrial action is likely to create unavoidable disruptions for ASPs, contractors and customers through the possible postponement of planned work. ASPs will receive notice of planned work being postponed on the morning of the job. Notice will be provided through a phone call or email that morning.

Any job that is postponed will need to be resubmitted via the Essential Connection Portal. For projects not being administered via the Essential Connections Portal, you will need to complete and submit a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 via contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au.

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.

As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence protective industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.

The ETU has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Thursday 12 September 2024, Friday 13 September 2024 and Monday 16 September 2024.

Please note, no notification has been received from the ETU for Saturday 14 September 2024 and Sunday 15 September 2024.

Potential Impacts

The planned industrial action is likely to create unavoidable disruptions for ASPs, contractors and customers through the possible postponement of planned work. ASPs will receive notice of planned work being postponed on the morning of the job. Notice will be provided through a phone call or email that morning.

Any job that is postponed will need to be resubmitted via the Essential Connection Portal. For projects not being administered via the Essential Connections Portal, you will need to complete and submit a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 via contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au.

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.

As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence protective industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.

The ETU has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Friday 6 September 2024 and each consecutive day up to and including Wednesday 11 September 2024.

Potential Impacts

The planned industrial action is likely to create unavoidable disruptions for ASPs, contractors and customers through the possible postponement of planned work. ASPs will receive notice of planned work being postponed on the morning of the job. Notice will be provided through a phone call or email that morning.

Any job that is postponed will need to be resubmitted via the Essential Connection Portal. For projects not being administered via the Essential Connections Portal, you will need to complete and submit a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 via contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au.

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.

As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence protective industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.

The ETU has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Tuesday 3 September 2024 and each consecutive day up to and including Thursday 5 September 2024.

Potential Impacts

The planned industrial action is likely to create unavoidable disruptions for ASPs, contractors and customers through the possible postponement of planned work. ASPs will receive notice of planned work being postponed on the morning of the job. Notice will be provided through a phone call or email that morning.

Any job that is postponed will need to be resubmitted via the Essential Connection Portal. For projects not being administered via the Essential Connections Portal, you will need to complete and submit a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 via contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au.

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?

In response to your concerns around the impacts of extending requests for connection are required 32 days prior to the connection date, we have decided to delay implementation of this change until 1 January 2025.

CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guidelines (Terms and Conditions for Contestable Work) will be revised back to 28 days.

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.

As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence protective industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.

The ETU has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Thursday 29 August 2024 and each consecutive day up to and including Monday 2 September 2024.

Potential Impacts

The planned industrial action is likely to create unavoidable disruptions for ASPs, contractors and customers through the possible postponement of planned work. ASPs will receive notice of planned work being postponed on the morning of the job. Notice will be provided through a phone call or email that morning.

Any job that is postponed will need to be resubmitted via the Essential Connection Portal. For projects not being administered via the Essential Connections Portal, you will need to complete and submit a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 via contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au.

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?

We’re increasing the timeline for requesting connections from twenty-eight (28) days to thirty-two (32) days.

From 1 September 2024, all Connection requests must be lodged a minimum of thirty-two (32) days prior to the requested connection date. The designated Depot Commissioning Officer (DCO) will confirm the Connection Date if the proposed date is available; however, where the proposed date is not available, the DCO will nominate the nearest available date, which will not be more than forty-two (42) days from the date of the request.

We’ve updated this change in CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guidelines (Terms and Conditions for Contestable Work), and CEOF6013 Request for planned outage, connection or work live LV request will be updated and available on the Document Library on 1 September 2024.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the above and ensure you have your requests in 32 days prior to connection request date.
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

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

As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence protective industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.

Essential Energy has not been notified of any form of protected industrial action for tomorrow, Friday 23 August.

The ETU has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Saturday 24 August 2024 and each consecutive day up to and including Wednesday 28 August 2024.

Potential Impacts

The planned industrial action is likely to create unavoidable disruptions for ASPs, contractors and customers through the possible postponement of planned work. ASPs will receive notice of planned work being postponed on the morning of the job. Notice will be provided through a phone call or email that morning.

Any job that is postponed will need to be resubmitted via the Essential Connection Portal. For projects not being administered via the Essential Connections Portal, you will need to complete and submit a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 via contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au.

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’s happening?

We’ve updated our Connection Policy CEOP2513.06 to align with emerging network and customer requirements.

Effective from 1 July 2024, the updated policy applies to all customers seeking to connect or alter an existing connection – including regulated Stand-Alone Power Systems (SAPS) – to Essential Energy’s distribution system under Chapter 5A of the National Electricity Rules.

We’ll provide further updates and advice as we implement the updated requirements.

Key updates include:

• clarity on situations where works which would normally be provided on a contestable basis may be classified as non-contestable
• clarity on when Essential Energy may provide financial contribution towards a connection augmentation
• thresholds for regulated SAPS
• provision to reduce an approved connection size through consultation and in good faith, in alignment with our recently released Model Standing Offers.

What do you need to do?

1. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
2. Review the updated Connection Policy on Document Library.

Further Information

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