Maintenance efforts continue to play a critical role in supporting network reliability and safety across our operations. In 2024–25, more than 145,000 maintenance tasks were completed, compared to more than 150,000 in the previous year. Significant challenges throughout the year, including multiple severe weather events and prolonged Protected Industrial Action, led to a network maintenance backlog of over 7,000 tasks, compared to 2,000 tasks the year earlier. Protected Industrial Action had a particularly notable impact on planned outage works, while other contributing factors included an increase in the number of assets inspected and asset defection rates. A recovery strategy is underway to address this backlog.

Field crews responded to more than 30,000 unplanned outages across the network, including a record number of 17 Major Event Days, demonstrating the team’s capability and adaptability in managing extreme conditions.

Despite a challenging period, public lighting compliance improved, with faster average rectification times for both general and priority faults, and fewer councils experiencing service level breaches. The backlog of urgent defects was reduced on the previous year’s results, reflecting improved responsiveness and defect management. Vegetation management also remained a key operational priority. Strengthened resourcing and scheduling enabled strong progress in high-risk areas, with minimal overdue tasks at year end, and none classified as Fall in Risk.

These outcomes reflect Essential Energy’s ongoing commitment to operational resilience and ensure the network remains well positioned to meet future demand and challenges.

Multiple severe weather events impacted Essential Energy’s customers and the network during 2024–25. In response, local and visiting field crews from across the State came together to support affected communities and safely restore power for customers.

Far West NSW windstorm and outage

An extreme windstorm in Far West NSW significantly damaged Transgrid transmission towers, with around 12,700 customers losing power early on 17 October 2024. Seven towers collapsed, with a further two towers and a key transmission line to outlying communities damaged by the storm.

We deployed temporary generators for customers, powering life support and other critical equipment and commissioned an additional 3.5MVA of generation at the Pinnacles Place Zone Substation as a dedicated power supply to outlying communities.

Working closely with Transgrid, power was restored to Broken Hill customers the following day and two days after the storm for rural customers. Unfortunately, customers experienced intermittent outages until Transgrid was able to bring its transmission line back into operation.

We kept customers updated through SMS notifications, website updates, social media posts, and through the media. A NSW Government support package provided payments for impacted households and smallto-medium businesses, with food hampers and food and fuel vouchers distributed by the Government and community organisations.

Seventy field employees contributed to the Essential Energy response, supporting customers throughout the outage.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred

Communities across the NSW Far North Coast, Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast and Northern Tablelands and parts of Southern Queensland were impacted by Tropical Cyclone Alfred in March 2025, including heavy winds, significant rainfall and flooding. Almost 100,000 customers were without power due to fallen trees, toppled power poles and damaged powerlines and electrical assets.

Our crews worked tirelessly to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

We mobilised equipment and teams in the lead-up to the cyclone, so we could restore power to customers faster when weather conditions permitted. Helicopters, excavators and all-terrain vehicles assisted local and visiting crews in extremely humid working conditions, while our operations team provided accommodation and logistics support. Crews in more than 400 Essential Energy vehicles covered over 360,000km to prepare for and respond to the cyclone’s impacts.

Our Customer Contact team kept customers updated over the phone, while our Community Relations team provided information, internet access and phone charging at local community hubs. Our crews completed almost 1,500 individual repairs and replacements across the network, alongside a whole-of-business effort to support our customers and communities.

Mid North Coast floods

Heavy rainfall and severe flooding affected the Mid North Coast in mid-May 2025, with more than 46,000 customers affected by power outages and, in some cases, extensive damage to their homes and businesses.

Our Mid North Coast teams monitored conditions and de-energised the electricity network where required for safety as floodwaters rose, before working to restore power once it was safe to do so. Floodwaters had washed away power poles and electrical equipment, including streetlights, while the weather brought down trees over powerlines and equipment. More than 100 crew members worked to restore the network and resupply customers, often in challenging conditions. Aerial and all-terrain inspections helped to survey the network and support our restoration efforts, while overlaying flood maps on our digital twin of network assets informed decision‑making.

Our customer support teams assisted impacted customers in person at Taree, Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Macksville, and through our contact centre and website – compassionately assisting customers in a difficult time.

Severe storms

Several severe storms affected communities on the network during spring and summer 2024–25, causing significant localised damage to the network. Communities were impacted throughout the Riverina, Central West, Northern Rivers, Far North Coast and Mid North Coast areas of NSW – with thousands of customers losing power in the various events. Some storms occurred within days of each other, with strong winds felling trees and making the task of restoring power to affected customers particularly difficult.

After each storm, our crews worked to assess the damage with an initial focus on keeping the community safe from damaged electricity infrastructure such as fallen powerlines, while locating faults in the network. Customers received estimated time of restoration updates via SMS and our website as information became available, with our crews working tirelessly to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

Essential Energy delivered its first brand new zone substation in a decade with the energisation of the South Jerrabomberra Zone Substation and 132kV transmission line on 28 February 2025. This major infrastructure project powers one of the region’s fastest-growing precincts, supporting residential, commercial and industrial development in Queanbeyan and surrounding areas. The build strengthens network capacity and improves reliability for a rapidly urbanising community.

Located on the border of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, the substation was designed to suit its urban surroundings, incorporating architectural and urban design features. Despite a complex delivery environment, the project was completed on time and to a high standard. This milestone reflects Essential Energy’s commitment to delivering resilient, future-focused infrastructure that meets the evolving needs of regional communities.

Early fault detection (EFD) technologies are being used to proactively identify and address network issues before they can cause shocks, fire ignitions or outages.

Overhead network early fault detection pilot

Essential Energy is preparing a two-year pilot of EFD technology to identify emerging faults on overhead power lines. Six feeders across five depot areas have been selected, targeting locations in high bushfire risk zones. Nearly 70 sensors will be deployed across the pilot sites, providing a coverage of 179km of the network.

When a sensor detects a potential fault, the system generates an alert that is reviewed, classified and prioritised for field inspection. This information is shared with crews, to enable timely site visits and proactive fault resolution.

Underground network voltage detection survey

Essential Energy is partnering with Osmose to detect low voltage faults on streetlights connected to our underground network. A mobile asset assessment vehicle conducts surveys while streetlights are operating at night, and can detect voltage on poles, metal fences and pillar bases, as well as ground level voltages on road verges. Where voltage is detected, we inspect the underground assets and address any faults.

The program launched in Albury in April 2025 and will visit 76 depots over a six-month period. From April to June 2025, 74 events were detected and resolved across 19 depot areas, reflecting our commitment to taking proactive steps that help maintain a safe and reliable network for our customers.

Essential Energy trims or removes trees and other vegetation that could impact powerlines and start a bushfire, cause a power outage or create an electrical safety risk. During 2024–25, Essential Energy and its contracted service providers treated 219,393 bays containing vegetation.

Machine learning and spatial measurements from LiDAR data are being used within a digital twin platform to help monitor and manage vegetation across our extensive network. The platform allows us to model areas of the network that require ‘clear to the sky’ vegetation treatment, enabling us to forecast the time and cost of the work more accurately. This evolution of our approach is helping us navigate rising costs, resource challenges and climate and weather changes while leveraging innovation and technology to maintain network safety and reliability.

We are continuing to engage with local councils to manage vegetation across the network. Three new memoranda of understanding (MOUs) were put in place during the year, with Berrigan, Bega Valley and Narromine Shire Councils. There are 17 vegetation management MOUs in place across the network, supporting communication, enhanced understanding and positive outcomes in regional communities.

Powerlines can be a source of fire ignition, a risk that is elevated on high fire risk days. Essential Energy invests significant effort and resources into reducing ignition risk as far as practicable.

We undertake formal fire risk safety assessments and identify treatment controls to reduce ignition risk and apply sophisticated risk modelling to understand the impact of investments, climate change and fire behaviour in the landscape, under different weather scenarios.

During the year, we realigned our asset inspection, asset maintenance and vegetation management activities with our updated bushfire priority zones. These zones were informed by bushfire risk modelling completed by the University of Melbourne in 2023–24. Completing all vegetation management activities across the newly identified high priority risk areas is expected to take eight years, and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) approved funding for this work in June 2025.

Work in these high priority vegetation management areas is underway, with approximately 4% treated as of 30 June 2025. These initiatives will help us mitigate network-initiated fire risk and manage asset resilience in line with the updated bushfire risk model. In April 2025 Essential Energy won the Asset Management Council’s ‘Cost, Risk, Performance’ Excellence award for the design of the eight-year transition plan with supporting modelling.

Ahead of the 2025–26 bushfire season, we introduced and tested new Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings which have reduced the potential for fire ignition due to faults on the network. Under these settings, upgraded network switching devices in rural locations can be managed remotely on days of heightened fire risk.

Participating in industry consultations and research helps to enhance our understanding of risks and risk treatment options, while sharing our experiences and insights. We joined a new national research project with the Natural Hazards Research Australia to consider the impact of windstorms on overhead power networks, which commenced in 2025. We contributed to research and initiatives by the CSIRO, Australian Fire Agencies Council and the University of Melbourne. We also contribute to the International Wildfire Risk Management Consortium and continue to work closely with the NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW Reconstruction Authority and telecommunications companies to build our understanding and collaborate on fire-related projects.

Essential Energy is responsible for the management and maintenance of approximately 171,000 public lighting assets for 99 customers, such as local councils. Essential Energy owns approximately 168,000 of these assets, 98% of which use energy-efficient LED lights.

We supported local councils by completing 16 public lighting minor capital projects to improve public safety. We also partnered with Albury City Council on a six-month traffic sensor trial across two busy intersections. The trial, which concluded in June 2025, aimed to assess traffic volumes and identify opportunities to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

Reliable internet access is essential for our field crews when working in remote areas, to support their safety and provide access to digital business tools. Following the successful pilot in 2023–24, additional devices were provided to crews during the year, taking the total number to more than 250 devices across the network. The devices also kept crews connected while supporting the recovery from severe weather events, including Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the Mid North Coast floods.

Starlink devices are now an important component of our field crew toolkit. Feedback from employees has been positive, with survey responses highlighting the importance of internet connectivity in the field to job satisfaction.

Essential Energy invested in a range of innovative research and development¹ activities during 2024–25, to enable the energy transition and develop the network of the future.

Enabling the energy transition

We are investing in technologies and innovations necessary to enable the energy transition, including:

• co-developing Australia’s first combined charging system (CCS2) V2G network and market ready solution with partners. The solution advances the integration of Consumer Energy Resources (CER) into the network, provides customers with increased network connection v value and unlocks the flexible storage capabilities of EVs (see ‘Pillar 3: Facilitate electric vehicle adoption’)
• commencing a five-year partnership with the CSIRO to continue the co‑development and advancement of V2G technology and research
• scaling up our pole-mounted EV charging solutions trial
• working with partners to develop and scale integrated AC EV chargers in existing street furniture, such as composite streetlights and power poles
• completing Part 1 of an industry study of the impacts of EV fast chargers on network infrastructure, in partnership with UNSW and RACE 2030 (see ‘Pillar 3: Facilitate electric vehicle adoption’)
• expanding the capability of our NEXUS innovation test facility to support more advanced testing of V2G, energy optimisation, renewable energy forecasting, CER and load dispatch capabilities
• continuing to co-develop a prototype lower noise ground-mounted battery with an Australian battery supplier
• deploying an early fault detection technology trial for bushfire risk reduction and inverter-led system fault detection (see ‘Early fault detection’).

Future networks

Our future networks activities focus on developing capabilities to modernise the electricity grid as the energy landscape changes and maintaining agility to respond as new developments emerge.

During the year, we focused on optimising two-way energy flows for customers by:

• continuing to transition from 240V to 230V, reducing high voltage issues across the network and unlocking solar hosting capacity for more households. In June 2025, only 8.38% of customers networkwide experienced voltage excursions², down by more than 50% since the program commenced in 2023
• establishing an interim dynamic connections solution with the Australian National University (ANU), which will offer dynamic connections for customers through a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) while our permanent solution is developed. Supporting this solution, we launched a Telemetry Hub to handle large data and perform calculations that can be sent to pole-mounted batteries
• procuring and progressing delivery of a new Utility Server to enable a DERMS to communicate with solar systems for flexible exports (see ‘Pillar 5: Digital transition’)
• commencing the backstop control capabilities project to deliver an emergency backstop mechanism (see ‘Pillar 2: Drive connections and load’).

We have continued to focus on alternative energy supply, evaluating and developing alternative load and generation technologies to present more cost-effective ways of managing network and customer needs than traditional network solutions. These include:

• reviewing the challenges and opportunities in implementing islandable microgrids to address local level supply and demand needs
• scoping options to enable storage-based microgrids on rural high voltage network segments as a solution to improve network reliability and resilience at Malparinka and Packsaddle (see ‘Pillar 2: Drive connections and load’)
• developing solutions at Ivanhoe and Tibooburra for hybrid zone substation microgrid options
• going live with manually-updated dynamic operating envelopes for a high voltage connection (the 1MW/2MWh network battery at Sovereign Hills, near Port Macquarie in May 2025) – to enable the flexibility to change within the season if network usage is changing
• delivering information on existing and forecast network load and generation to increase asset utilisation and connect customers quicker and at lower cost
• implementing Stand Alone Power Systems to deliver reliable, safe and efficient energy solutions where appropriate to support existing sites and customers
• applying alternative load control settings (moving from a 240V standard to 230V) to use excess generation from solar panels, and trialling on-load tap changer voltage regulation technology
• changing business processes and assumptions using new technical tools to release excess reserved network capacity for load and generation and to forecast network constraints in different scenarios
• dynamic load control management to shift hot water loads via smart meters and take advantage of peak solar generation while reducing network demand (see ‘Pillar 2: Drive connections and load’).