Essential Energy – COVID-19 response

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