Pillar 3: Facilitate electric vehicle adoption

Essential Energy has a strong role in supporting customers who choose to move to electric vehicles (EVs), including connecting charging infrastructure to the network. EVs are an important and unique future source of electricity demand and supply; and when properly harnessed, can support the network and provide immense value for customers.

2024-25 Highlights

  • 1st

    electric semi-trailer joins our fleet

  • 25

    depot, office and warehouse locations with electric vehicle chargers

  • Pilot

    bi-directional charges for electric vehicles, with CSIRO

Transitioning our fleet

Essential Energy’s fleet contains more than 2,000 vehicles. EV availability varies between vehicle types, with more availability for passenger vehicles and less for heavy vehicles. The transition of the fleet to EVs from internal combustion engines (ICE) is continuing, as suitable vehicles become available and where it is safe and practical to do so.

As of 30 June 2025, there were 68 EVs in the fleet: 32 light commercial and passenger EVs and 36 forklifts and operational EVs. This includes Essential Energy’s first EV semi-trailer, a Volvo FH Electric Truck, which started delivering tools and equipment to depots on the NSW North Coast in February 2025, from Dungog to Tweed Heads – a distance of more than 600km.

Supporting this shift, the network of EV chargers in Essential Energy depots expanded during 2024–25. EV chargers are operational at 25 locations as of 30 June 2025, including eight new fast chargers.

Supporting charging infrastructure across regional NSW

Access to charging infrastructure is important to EV drivers and the regional NSW economy. Essential Energy’s role is to work with charging point operators and local government to support the installation and innovation of charging infrastructure across our network.

During the year, we collaborated with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and RACE2030 to complete a feasibility study that revealed significant untapped capacity available from transformers to address some of the challenges of EV fast charging. This early work shows that by using this untapped capacity, transformers can be overloaded for short periods to accommodate peak EV loads without adversely affecting transformer lifespan, scheduled maintenance or retirement. We plan to test this on two purpose-built transformers, which will be equipped with thermal sensing and deployed at new fast charger sites in our network area for data collection and further learning.

We also continued to progress work to integrate EV chargers into streetlight poles, using insights from our award-winning trial during 2023–24 to refine the product for a longer-term rollout.

Case study
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) enables energy sharing between EV batteries, houses and the grid

Our first V2G trial began in 2023 with a customer using their new EV for power storage and transportation – successfully powering their home for two years and providing information about V2G benefits and challenges.

This year, we partnered with the CSIRO to trial a range of EVs and bi-directional chargers at our Innovation Hub in Port Macquarie, to better understand V2G integration and identify obstacles for broad adoption. In an Australian first, in April 2025 we jointly announced with the CSIRO that V2G technology is market ready, having successfully connected AUSEV’s Ford F-150 Lightning with a combined charging system (CCS2) DC bi-directional charger and the Clean Energy Council approved Sigenergy storage system. Under this partnership we are continuing to investigate the compatibility of V2G with vehicles from other manufacturers.