Level 2 ASPs

What is happening?

The Electrical Safety Office recently completed a review of Operational Procedure: CEOP2377 Equipotential and Personal Protective Bonding.

Updates now incorporate the recent amendments made to CEOP8030 Electrical Safety Rules and other feedback received from within the business.

Details of these updates are listed within section 7.0 of CEOP2377 issue 6, now available on Essential Energy’s Document Library.

Safety Brief 905 - CEOP2377 Equipotential and Personal Protective Bonding Issue 6 is being shared for your information and can be accessed from Essential Energy’s Document Library or Essential Engagement.

What you need to do?

Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation

For Further information

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

What is Happening?

As an organisation delivering critical services to communities across NSW and employing thousands of people across the State, it is crucial for rural, regional and remote NSW that Essential Energy responds effectively to COVID-19.

Essential Energy has enacted its Pandemic Management Plan and established a Pandemic Preparedness Team (PPT) to proactively manage our organisational response.

In line with our Pandemic Management Plan, the objectives guiding Essential Energy’s ongoing response are to:

• Protect the health and wellbeing of Essential Energy employees, contractors, suppliers and the community;
• Minimise the risk of Essential Energy being a source of infection for employees and the broader community; and
• Reduce the risk of operational disruption to Essential Energy and Essential Water.

To ensure appropriate social distancing is maintained many of Essential Energy’s employees are working from home, where operationally possible, this includes members of the Asset Management and Engineering division.

The Design and Certification team will be transitioning to working from home over the coming days. Throughout the next few weeks, as we continue to implement our measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, we ask you to please correspond with the individual team members via the group email address contestableworks@essentialenergy.com.au, or, directly with the team via their individual email.

The Contestable Connections team are also beginning to work from home and should be contacted via their individual email.

At this stage the Technical Enquiries team remain available via phone on the enquiries number.

We assure you that the team will be doing their best to ensure there is minimal impact on Contestable Works, and will continue to keep you updated on any further changes as the pandemic continues.

Thank you for your understanding.

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

Last week one of Essential Energy’s mailing lists was targeted by a phishing email with a PDF link that was malware. We would like to remind our ASP partners to be vigilant for these emails and maintain your cyber security.

A phishing email is a fraudulent attempt to obtain your sensitive information by a sender disguising themselves as a trustworthy entity.

If you receive a phishing email please take the following actions:

• Delete the email
• Do not open it and do not click on any links
• If you click on a suspicious link, we recommend you change all your passwords
• Do not forward the email

Further Information

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

SafeWork NSW have created two videos to raise safety awareness in the Solar industry. You can view these videos on SafeWorks NSW YouTube Channel or follow the links below.

• Electrical Risk

• Risk of Fall

When you have a bushfire affected customer who needs to be connected to the Essential Energy Network you will need to fill in a new connection application in all cases where rebuilding is required.

The connection application should be submitted with the NMI attached to the site prior to the fires – regardless of the current status of the NMI – if the customer can’t locate their bill they can contact Essential Energy’s contact centre on 13 23 91 or their retailer will be able to help.

If the NMI has been made Extinct, then Essential Energy will contact the ASP or customer to advise they will need to establish an account with a Retailer and a new NMI will be required.

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

Essential Energy catalogue number 278010 – Deadends 7/3.00 AAAC one supplier has been removed from the approved materials list for safety reasons and must not be used on the network.

A new version of the approved material list was published on 30 January 2020.

What do you need to do?

1. Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
2. Review CEOM7004 – Standard Contestable (Approved) materials list on the Document Library

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

What is happening?

Essential Energy’s network was significantly damaged during the devasting fires across South East and Southern NSW. To help us restore supply to fire affected customers in this region Essential Energy are seeking to engage Level 2 ASPs to undertake service and installation work under Essential Energy’s Contract Service Provider (CSP) panel arrangement.

To put our customers first and ensure that they are not impacted any longer than necessary, Essential Energy have already engaged a number of Level 2 ASP companies in the Moruya and Bega areas to work with us.

Essential Energy would like to hear from any Level 2 ASPs in the fire affected South Coast, Snowy Valleys and Riverina areas who have the capacity to assist us by taking on some of the recovery work. The first step you need to take in order to assist is to join our CSP panel. If you are interested in becoming a CSP, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au:

• Company name
• Contact person
• Email address
• Phone number
• Accreditation number
• Location you can potentially assist in
• Work Health and Safety Plan
• Environmental Management Plan

At this stage we will only be processing requests to join the CSP panel from ASP’s in the South Coast region. However, once we have moved through the current recovery process we will offer this to all ASPs across our footprint for use during any future disaster recovery efforts.

Many of our ASP partners have offered assistance in our fire effected areas, for this Essential Energy would like to say thank you.

Further Information

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

What is Happening?

As Essential Energy’s response to the bushfire events across the state continue, we are seeing a number of potentially hazardous situations present themselves to those working on the Essential Energy network.

Safety Brief 892 – Ongoing Works in Fire Affected Grounds is being shared for your information and can be accessed from Essential Energy’s Document Library or Essential Engagement/ASP Engagement.

During this Bushfire time we ask you to:

• Contact your local Network Assurance Facilitator or Essential Energy contact before doing work on or near our network. Where network supply is not available to conduct testing these premises are to be left disconnected and secured with a danger tag. Contact your local Essential Energy representative to co-ordinate connection when the network supply is restored.
• Remember our network is in an abnormal state and ensure that you put your safety first. Be on the lookout for temporary generation connections that may be back-energising installations.
• That all ASPs are only allowed to undertake work on or near the network that they are accredited and authorised to perform (eg only overhead authorised ASPs are to perform overhead service works).

Further Information

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