Level 3 ASPs
Level 3 ASPs design overhead and/or underground distribution and Sub-Transmission network assets. If you need further information or support, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.
Important Document Links:
Click here for the Design and Certification Officer Contact List
Level 3 ASPs design overhead and/or underground distribution and Sub-Transmission network assets. If you need further information or support, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.
Important Document Links:
Click here for the Design and Certification Officer Contact List
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Update 5: Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Update 4: Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Updated Essential Energy Connection Policy
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?
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
- Review the updated Connection Policy on Document Library.
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.
Update 3: Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
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 Wednesday 21 August 2024 and Thursday 22 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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Update 2: Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
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 Saturday 17 August 2024 and each consecutive day up to and including Tuesday 20 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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Update 1: Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
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 Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has notified Essential Energy of further proposed protective industrial action commencing on Thursday 15 August 2024 and Friday 16 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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Update: Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
As per our communications from 6 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence industrial action effective from 8 August 2024.
Essential Energy has received further notice of a range of indefinite or periodic bans, including limitations on work tasks and activities. We expect rolling industrial action to continue to take place in the short term and will continue to keep you updated.
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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guidelines, Terms and Conditions has been revised
What is happening?
A revised version of the CEOP2015 Contestable Works Guidelines, Terms and Conditions for Contestable Works is available in the Document Library.
It has been reviewed and updated in its entirely to enhance clarity and reflect current processes, including rollout of Construction in the Essential Connections portal.
Section 8 Revisions provides a summary of major changes.
While many updates based on feedback from ASPs and internal stakeholders have been incorporated, some recommendations have been logged for further exploration. Any agreed or approved revisions will be included in future updates.
What do you need to do?
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
- Review the document, on the Document Library
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.
Electrical Trades Union Protected Industrial Action at Essential Energy
UPDATE:
On 1 August 2024, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) provided notice to Essential Energy of its intention to commence industrial action effective from 8 August 2024, with rolling one (1) hour stoppages for participating ETU members.
Essential Energy has also received notice of a range of other indefinite or periodic bans, including limitations on the following work tasks and activities:
- Use of a specified range of Information Technology programs and Applications
- Certifying and inspecting Accredited Service Providers’ (ASPs) designs and projects
- Verification on Life Support Customers for planned outages
- Field Staff Switching – meaning that power will not be switched off which will prevent certain planned works from going ahead
- Locking or unlocking of equipment including electrical cabinets, electrical equipment, switching stations and other hardware devices
- Issuing of access permits (other than during fault and emergency conditions) and field access authorities for non-Essential Energy employees
- Creating or writing planned switching sheets.
Some of the cited actions include a Safety Commitment that ensures a level of employees being available for fault and emergency.
The safety of our employees, customers and the wider community remains our number one priority. We are reprioritising work to ensure urgent and critical work can be performed as required, and Essential Energy will continue to respond to fault and emergency work throughout the industrial action to help ensure a safe and reliable power supply for all customers.
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, a ‘Request for Planned Outage’ form CEOP6013 will need to be completed and submitted 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.
-
You cannot leave comment in this blogpost unless you are a part of the project panel.
Updated Essential Energy model standing offers
Essential Energy has updated its suite of model standing offers (MSOs) to align with emerging network and customer requirements. The previous suite of five MSOs has been rationalised to three:
- Basic connection service (with or without embedded generation)
- Standard connection service (with or without embedded generation)
- Standard connection (subdivision) service
Benefits include:
- providing the connecting customer with detailed information to ensure visibility of the processes and steps required to connect to Essential Energy’s network
- formalising the process of gifting customer-funded assets to Essential Energy for Standard connections
- highlighting site-specific conditions attached to the Connection Offer
Deed of Transfer
Our updated Standard connection and Standard connection (subdivision) MSOs now include a Deed of Transfer - Gifted Assets that outlines the terms of engagement between the customer/developer and Essential Energy.
The new MSOs and Deed of Transfer are effective as of 1 July 2024. Contestable works projects commencing after this date will be required to enact the Deed of Transfer prior to connection of customer-funded assets to the network.
What do you need to do?
- Familiarise your team with the new Deed of Transfer – available as an appendix to the new MSOs on Essential Energy’s website.
- Communicate this information to relevant members of your organisation.
- Review the updated MSOs, on Essential Energy’s website.
What will we do?
- Design a new process, in collaboration with Level 1 ASPs, for the administration of the Deed of Transfer
- Provide ongoing updates and advice as we implement the new requirement.
Further Information
If you need further information, please email aspinfo@essentialenergy.com.au.
Who's Listening
-
Phone 02 6933 5956 Email hamish.wheatley@essentialenergy.com.au
Essential Connections
Digital Asset Management
-
What's New?
-
Whats new - June 2025 (378 KB) (pdf)
-
Reports to assist with unspecified status and asset labels (381 KB) (pdf)
-
Reports to assist with Unspecified Status and Asset Labels (35.2 MB) (mp4)
-
Change to Nearas Pole Library Configuration (347 KB) (pdf)
-
Updated Neara User Interface (24.7 MB) (mp4)
-
How to update an old Neara design-User Guide (1.52 MB) (pdf)
-
How to update an old Neara design - Video (23.3 MB) (mp4)
-
-
Getting Started
-
01 Getting Started - what you need to access Neara our network model and Lidar data (759 KB) (pdf)
-
02 How to log in to Neara and access our Network Model and Lidar data (994 KB) (pdf)
-
03 Level 3 Access Request to Neara (19.5 KB) (xlsx)
-
04 Getting Started with Neara (61.8 MB) (mp4)
-
05 Request access to Essential Energys network model and LiDAR data for a given area (105 MB) (mp4)
-
-
General Navigation of Neara
-
01 General Navigation of Neara (3.99 MB) (pdf)
-
02 Mouse Controls and Keyboard Shortcuts - video (112 MB) (mp4)
-
03 Customise Neara screenlayout and workspace (102 MB) (mp4)
-
05 Searching by an Asset Label or an Asset ID (102 MB) (mp4)
-
04 Search in Neara by location (74.8 MB) (mp4)
-
06 Finding a Design (34.6 MB) (mp4)
-
07 Using the Libraries in Neara (78 MB) (mp4)
-
08 Properties Panel (132 MB) (mp4)
-
-
Understanding LiDAR
-
Overhead Design
-
01 A 28-Step Guide to using Neara and Essential Energys Network Model for ASPs (3.09 MB) (pdf)
-
02 Creating an Overhead Design with Neara (2.98 MB) (pdf)
-
03 Guidelines for using Essential Energys Foundations Checks (2.23 MB) (pdf)
-
04 Overhead Design Buttons (117 MB) (mp4)
-
05 Adding a Stay (107 MB) (mp4)
-
06 Using the Environments Spreadsheet (48.5 MB) (mp4)
-
07 Adding a Transformer and Associated Pole Substation (61.6 MB) (mp4)
-
08 How to Use EE Attached Crossings Checks (49.1 MB) (mp4)
-
09 How to use the clearance report (61.8 MB) (mp4)
-
10 Strength Checks (121 MB) (mp4)
-
11 Designing Side Stays in Neara (965 KB) (pdf)
-
12 Guidelines for Essential Energys Swing angle Check in Neara (1.12 MB) (pdf)
-
13 Flag is loaded in master model template (7.04 MB) (mp4)
-
-
Automated Overhead Construction and Conductor Schedules
-
Underground Design
-
Section 1_ Introduction and Update
-
Section 2_ Using the UG Tools
-
Section 3_ Design Example and Pulling Calculation
-
Section 4_ Voltage Drop Calculations
-
How to Use the Underground Design Tools in Neara (2.95 MB) (pdf)
-
Neara Underground Design - Voltage Drop Calculations (445 KB) (pdf)
-
Neara Underground Design Example - How to Design Underground Reticulation for a New Residential Estate (10.1 MB) (pdf)
-
How To Set The Coefficient of Friction in Neara (1.58 MB) (pdf)
-
Neara UG - Voltage and Current Calculations_update (661 KB) (pdf)
-
Underground Design Example (993 KB) (zip)
-
-
Additional Neara Resources
Information
-
Safety Briefs/Alerts
-
Briefing – CEOM7098 issue 16 - Underground Design manual changes (382 KB) (pdf)
-
ASP Underground Manual update session Aug 2024 (312 KB) (pdf)
-
Bushfire Priority Zone Transition BFP ASP Comms (101 MB) (mp4)
-
Essential Energy - Digital Identification User Guide (1.87 MB) (pdf)
-
Policy
-
Essential Connections Portal Preview (1.21 MB) (mp4)
Construction News
-
2025
-
CN25-04 - R1100 Relay replacements for the R03 relays (205 KB) (pdf)
-
CN25-03 SafeLink II RMUs DJ-3100 Through Fault Indicators (348 KB) (pdf)
-
CN25-02 Lifting 33kV 1500kVA Padmount Substations - Amendment 1 (392 KB) (pdf)
-
CN25-01 Low Voltage Pillars (152 KB) (pdf)
-
CN24-03 Padmount Substations Optional 315 & 500kVA 11kV Amended February 2025 (143 KB) (pdf)
-
-
2024