You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is Happening?
Effective immediately Essential Energy will be increasing the time taken to review Level 2 Accredited Services Providers basic non-standard design approval, from 30 minutes to 1 hour, this reflects the work being undertaken to review these requests.
This means a basic non-standard design approval will be subject to a 1 hour fee at the labour class of R2a normal time as per the Price Schedule for Ancillary Network Services section 1.5 Non-standard design approval, available on our website.
Note: Essential Energy reserves the right to waive fees at our discretion.
What do you need to do?
Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email techconnect@essentialenergy.com.au.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is Happening?
To minimise disruption to customers during the Christmas / New Year period, we’ll cease scheduling planned outages with a customer impact from 19 December 2025 until 4 January 2026.
Our Contestable Works office will also be closed from 19 December 2025, with business resuming as normal from 5 January 2026. During this period, minimal Essential Connections Portal cases/enquires/emails/documentation or Asset Labels will be processed.
What do you need to do?
- Review your planned interruption schedule for the dates above and work with your nominated Local Depot Switching Resource to reschedule where required.
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is happening?
Essential Energy will be hosting an opt-in support session for Level 2 ASPs and Electrical Contractors with questions relating to the Essential Connections Portal. The session will run for 1 hour – please drop in anytime, you can ask a quick question or stay as long as you choose.
The opt-in support session will be held on Tuesday 14 October at 8 am to 9 am - please click here to register.
What do you need to do?
- Ensure you are registered to attend the support sessions.
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is happening?
Our External Sales Team is available Monday to Friday between 7:30am and 4:00pm to help you order the materials you need for your Essential Energy projects. We aim to respond to all enquiries within two business days. Here’s how we can help:
- Need a current price list: Let us know and we’ll be happy to provide it
- Purchasing materials for approved ECN projects through External Sales: Email us at external.sales@essentialenergy.com.au and we’ll send you a quotation. Orders will be processed once an ECN project number has been provided
- Order collection and lead times: Purchase orders can be collected from our Grafton or Wagga Wagga warehouses. Current lead times are around 4 weeks from the date of order, although this may vary for direct delivery items or special orders.
- Items not on Approved Material List (AML): If you need materials that don’t appear on the current price list or AML, please reach out to us at external.sales@essentialenergy.com.au. We’ll be happy to review your request and see how we can help.
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As a reminder: Please ensure you provide the Essential Energy items numbers you require to ensure we can provide your quote.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like more information.
What do you need to do?
Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email external.sales@essentialenergy.com.au.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What's happening?
Essential Energy wishes to inform all ASPs that the Commercial Services Team will have periods of limited availability from Monday, 22 September 2025, through Friday, 26 September 2025, due to scheduled travel commitments. As a result, there may be delays in responses from both the Network Assurance Team and the TechConnect Team during this period.
Please be assured that this will not affect any planned outages. We appreciate your understanding and patience as our teams collaborate to further enhance service delivery for our ASPs and customers.
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
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is happening?
In February, the NSW Government advised solar energy businesses that it was developing a Consumer Energy Resources (CER) Installer Portal, which will support the Emergency Backstop Mechanism in NSW by making it easier for installers to comply with new obligations.
Solar businesses and industry associations have asked the NSW Government and NSW DNSPs (Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy) to ensure that industry advice has been considered when developing the NSW CER Installer Portal.
You can Click here to find updates on:
- industry engagement during portal development
- current project status, and
- a program of support and training we’re developing to help you prepare for these changes.
What do you need to do?
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
- Find additional details regarding the Emergency Backstop Mechanism and the CER Install Portal on the DCCEWW website
- View this communication via Essential Engagement.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email future.networks@essentialenergy.com.au.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Essential Energy sent out a satisfaction survey invitation on Thursday 4th September (subject: Annual ASP/EC Satisfaction Survey Your Feedback Needed) to gather feedback on our connections services.
Thank you to those who have already completed the survey - your feedback is greatly appreciated and will help us improve our services.
This survey focuses on your experience with the Connections Portal, Connections Process, our communication, and overall ease of doing business with Essential Energy.
Your feedback is valuable in helping us identify what's working well and areas where we can improve our services to better support your business needs.
The survey takes approximately 4-6 minutes to complete and all responses are confidential. We encourage you to provide honest feedback to help us enhance our service delivery.
What do you need to do?
- Complete the customer satisfaction survey if you haven't already check your email for the invitation sent Thursday 4th September
- Provide honest feedback about your experience over the past 12 months
- Share this reminder with relevant members of your organisation who interact with Essential Energy's connections services and may have received the survey invitation
- View this communication via Essential Engagement
Further Information
If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is happening?
The Essential Connection Information Session with Level 2 ASPs and Electrical Contractors was held on 27 August 2025. To view the slide deck, click here and the recording click here.
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.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is happening?
We’ve recently become aware of a bug within issue 8 of the CEOF1070.02 - Review of Environmental Factors Worksheet PDF file that caused some results not to display the calculated risk score.
We apologise for any inconvenience. We’ve fixed this bug, and a new version of the file – Issue 9 – is now available to download from the Document Library. Please use this latest version for all Design Submissions.
What do you need to do?
- Review the above and download the latest version from the Document Library.
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email techconnect@essentialenergy.com.au.
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
What is happening?
On 15 May 2025, Essential Energy applied for a ring-fencing waiver to establish a training academy with hubs in Goulburn, Grafton, Orange, Parkes, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga and deliver contestable technical and safety training courses to the electricity industry.
The facility will aim to provide accredited training to future-proof internal workforce sustainability and, through commercial course offerings, address existing skills shortages and evolving training needs across the broader energy sector.
The waiver (from clauses 3.1(b), 4.2.1, 4.2.2 and 4.2.3 of the Ring-fencing Guideline (electricity distribution), would enable Essential Energy to offer two certificate IV courses from 2025 to meet current industry demand, ahead of establishing a full training academy by 2027.
Your input is welcomed
The AER will be interested to hear from third parties supporting the waiver on:
- Need for skilled workforce in regions for energy projects out to 2050 (project proponents)
- What is the current availability of training services in regions for energy projects and where lack of availability, what is the impact on project economics and delivery (project proponents) Benefits to projects and regional economic development of having regionally based workforce training (project proponents, regional councils-business community) in the short and longer-term
- Benefits to safety and overall workforce capability in underserved areas.
You can lodge your written submission through the AER website here - Initiation | Australian Energy Regulator (AER), via e-mail to AERringfencing@aer.gov.au.
Submissions must be lodged by close of business on 5 September 2025.
What do you need to do?
- Find further information, including the initiation notice, on the AER website, click here to view.
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.
IS-041 Private pole failure during pole replacement work_ ASP (264 KB) (pdf)