Level 2 ASPs

Hi All,

We are reintroducing the Standards Reference Forums which were last held in 2021 to promote engagement and consultation for development and implementation of design and construction standards.

We are engaging in a spirit of openness and transparency to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes and improvements across the scope of design and construction standards.

The Standards Reference Forums scope does not include Contestable Design and Certification, Connections, Outage Management, Authorisations and Electrical Safety Office queries.

The forum will be chaired and facilitated by Manager Network Assurance with support from Manager Engineering Overhead, and Manager Engineering Underground.

Topics included at this forum include Overhead and Underground Standards and streetlights updates.

Your invited.

• Date: Thursday the 10th of November 2022.
• Time: 10:00am - 12:00 Midday.

what do i need to do?

• Register in advance to attend by clicking on this Register Here.
• After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
• Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
• View this communication via Essential Engagement.

Essential Connections Weekly Update 26th October 2022

The new design portal went live on Monday 24th October 2022, allowing new design applications to be submitted via the Essential Connections portal.

Data migration activities in relation to existing design applications and submissions are almost complete and most files related to design cases should be available from today.

Large files may take until the end of the week to come through the new system. If you need access to any missing files urgently, please email: contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au and provide the relevant reference details for Essential Energy to manually attach the files to the new system.

Process for re-certifications

We have had a couple of queries around the process to follow for recertifications.

If the design for your project was certified via the Contestable Works process, you will need to follow the Contestable Works process for recertification.

If the design for your project was certified in the Design Portal (ST projects) or in the Essential Connections portal, you will need to complete the recertification in Essential Connections.

If you need to do a recertification of a design in Essential Connections on a migrated design case, you may find that you error messages on your screen. In this instance, check the compliance checkboxes in the same way you do for a new design submission (follow the external user guide for design submission). This won’t be required where you do a recertification on a design certified in the new portal.

Need help?

A registered user guide has been published on our Essential Connections Support portal, to help you navigate the new design portal. The guide contains information on how to log in, submit requests in the new portal and where to go for additional support so please use this as your first point of contact, along with the below support sessions. Note: If the latest version (October 2022) doesn’t appear, hit the ctrl key + F5 to refresh the guide. Please find a link to the Level 3 ASP Design Training Recording.

Our support sessions continue, with many great questions received so far, so please join one of our upcoming sessions to have your questions addressed live.

What do you need to do?

1. Access our Essential Connections Support to view our registered user guide.
2. Sign up to one of the above sessions to have your questions answered live.
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.

As you know, the BetterConnect project has been preparing for the next Essential Connections release, which will support the design phase of the end-to-end connections process to be managed in the Essential Connections portal.

Although we are progressing well with ensuring the readiness of the system, and it is available for the submission of new design applications, we are experiencing a delay in making your existing design-related data available.

What does this mean for you?

New and in-flight connection enquiries and applications

• The system is now open and ready to accept new connection enquiries and applications and Essential Energy is able to assess and provide you with connection offers

New design submissions

• You can now submit NEW easement requests and design related services (design information application requests, design submissions, asset labels and non-standard approvals) via the Essential Connections portal.

Existing design submissions (design information applications, design submissions and non-standard approvals)

• Whilst you will be able to see your in-flight design cases we are still migrating your design file attachments into Essential Connections portal - these will be available progressively over the coming days.
• We anticipate that all data will be available this week

PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS OR PROCESS ANY IN-FLIGHT DESIGN PROJECTS AS THIS MAY CORRUPT YOUR REQUESTS

Design Information Applications where the Connection Application was Submitted in the NECF Portal

If you have a design information application (DIA) request to submit for a project where the connection application was processed in the NECF portal you won’t be able to submit the request until you get an Essential Connection Number (ECN) and application case number from us. Please send an email to contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au and include your connection offer number and street address and we will be able to provide you with the information you need to submit the Design Information Application (DIA) request.

Need help? Join our Essential Connections support sessions and have your problems solved live!

Support sessions have been scheduled to address any system questions and solve your problems live. If you need help accessing the portal or have any navigation questions, please join us in one of our sessions and we’ll do our best to assist you!

For learning materials and our step by step Registered User Manual

Information on Essential Connection portal and how to use the solution can be found on Essential Energy's support page, check out the Essential Connections Portal Registered User Manual.

Additional support

If you can’t make any of the support sessions mentioned above, please send an email to the relevant mailbox based on your type of enquiry.

Note: please send your enquiry to one mailbox only and do not cc other mailboxes as this will delay Essential Energy’s response to your enquiry.

Essential Connections Weekly Update 20th October 2022

We continue to work towards next Monday 24th October 2022 for the new design portal to go live. As previously communicated, the following processes are going live on Monday 24th October @ 09:00am.

• Design Information Applications
• Design Submissions
• Non-Standard Approvals
• Asset Labels
• Easements

Construction (Level 1 ASP) processes will not be used in the new system until later in the year. These processes will continue to be carried out via Contestable works and we will communicate further around the phased onboarding approach for construction.

If you have missed this week’s Essential Connections ASP information session or would like to revisit any of the information, please view the Information Session and/or watch the Recording.

Level 3 ASPs: Accessing Essential Connections on Monday 24 October 2022

Existing Level 3 ASPs who have been using Essential Connections will automatically have access to the portal – there is no need to register for the new system.

When you access the system on Monday, the ‘Design Portal’ tile will have disappeared from your OKTA screen, leaving only the ‘Essential Connections’ tile. Use the Essential Connections tile from Monday to access all your design related activity.

For some L3 ASPs you may find an error message when you log in, depending on how you have bookmarked the Essential Connections portal in your browser. If this is the case, simply go to Essential Energy okta to login to the system (and make sure you update your bookmark).

Essential Connections Design Go Live Support Sessions – Starting next week!

Click on the link(s) to register your attendance for one of our support sessions.

NOTE: Drop-in support sessions have been scheduled after go-live to support you and address your enquiries live. These sessions should be your first point of contact to have your queries answered.

Change in easement hold point

Not all projects will be able to transition to the new hold point as highlighted below.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the overview presentation and watch the session recording by clicking on the Essential Connections Information Session above.
2. Access the level 3 ASP 3 hub on Essential Engagement for links to training materials and our user manual.
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

Essential Connections Design Go Live Support Sessions

Drop-in support sessions have been scheduled post go-live to support you and address your enquiries live. These sessions should be your first point of contact to ask questions.

What do you need to do?

Register for the Drop-in Support Sessions that suits you.

Further Information

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

Essential Connections will be unavailable from 18th October (5pm) to 24th October 2022 (9am).

As you may be aware, Essential Energy has been working on the next release of the Essential Connections portal which will support the design and construction phases of the end-to-end connections process to be managed in the one system.

To prepare for this next release, a number of activities need to be undertaken to migrate data from the existing system to Essential Connections.

What do you need to know?

From 18th October (5pm):

• The Essential Connections applications and enquiries portal will not be available from 5pm, Tuesday 18th October until 9am (AEDT), Monday 24th October 2022.
• Similarly, the Design portal will not be accessible during this time.
• There will be a freeze on design information requests, design submission requests, asset label requests, non-standard approvals and re-certification requests (that have been submitted via the design portal).
• All new design information requests will be required to be submitted via the new Essential Connections portal and will not be accepted via email.

What do you need to do?

If you are not already registered user of the new Essential Connections & Design portal, please Register Here.

Essential Connections Portal will be available on the 24th of October 2022 @ 09:00am

Further Information

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

What is Happening?

Unfortunately, system issues with submission of connection applications and enquiries in the new Essential Connections Portal have resulted in delays in processing applications.

At the moment, the average time to process an application is approximately 15 to 20 days.

We apologise and ask for your patience as we put plans in place to resolve system issues and onboard additional staff to reduce the backlog and process your requests within our standard target of 10 days.

To assist in getting an application completed, please ensure you have filled out the application accurately and all required documents are uploaded.

What do you need to do?

1. Make sure your application is filled in with actuate information and you have attached all the required documents
2. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation and your clients.
3. View this communication via Essential Engagement.

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.

What is happening?

The AER has approved Essential Energy’s new regulatory charges for Ancillary Network Services from 1 July 2022.

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 2022.

What do you need to do?

1. Review the 2022-23 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.
4. View this communication via Essential Engagement.

Further information

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

What is Happening?

The first release of the Essential Connections portal for Low Voltage (LV) enquiries and applications, scheduled for Monday 16 Monday, has been delayed.

Due to unforeseen technical issues outside of Essential Energy’s control we will not be able to release the new portal on 16 May as planned.

Please continue to submit all LV connection enquiries and applications through the existing enquiry and connections portals available on the Connecting to the Network page on our website.

It is expected at this stage that the release of the portal will be delayed until June 2022

We will keep you informed and will be able to share more accurate information on the revised date in the coming weeks.

Introduction of fees and upfront payment

We previously communicated that the introduction of Ancillary Network Services (ANS) fees and upfront payments were scheduled to be charged from Monday 16 May. These fees will also be delayed to align with the release of the new Essential Connections portal.

What do you need to do?

1. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.

Further Information

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