The Energy Charter is a sector-wide initiative to deliver more affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all Australians. As a Charter participant, we are involved in the following projects:

• Cost of Living Supports
• Disaster Resilience
• First Nations Engagement
• Knock to Stay Connected
• Know Your Customers and Communities
• Landholder and Community Special Licence
• Life Support.

In May 2024, the Charter’s Knock to Stay Connected Customer Code received the 2024 Shared Value Innovation Award, from the Shared Value Project – recognising collective efforts to address energy vulnerability. The Code aims to prevent customer disconnections before they occur, by providing personal visits, with support information.

As a Charter signatory, Essential Energy is committed to embedding a customer-centric culture based on the Charter’s five principles, and publicly disclosing how we are delivering against these principles. Our 2023–24 Disclosure Statement details our performance and was shared with our Customer Advocacy Group and Essential People’s Panel for review. It was published on our website for public comment in September 2024.

We achieved several Customer Strategy milestones during 2023–24, enriching the quality and depth of our customer understanding and establishing practices to action service and customer experience improvements. Customer Strategy initiatives embed a cyclical approach to understanding our customers and adapting our organisation to meet their evolving needs.

We developed and started using a Customer Segment and Insights Model to help us better understand and serve our customers. The model enables us to group our customer base using common characteristics and qualities to understand their interests, experiences and pain points.

In 2024, we introduced deep dive research sessions. These are in-depth discussions with commercial customer and partner segments to build our relationships and provide new avenues for customer feedback.

Our Voice of Customer initiative uses automated customer surveys and sentiment analysis, providing faster insights to drive service improvements.

These real-time surveys allow us to drill into different experiences and areas across our network to better understand service outcomes, ensuring we are meeting customer needs.

We launched our Customer Toolkit and Training Program to support our maturing customer-centric approach, with a resulting increase in employee enrolments in certified customer service training across the organisation.

Our efforts were recognised by being selected as a finalist in the 2024 Australian Service Excellence Awards from the Customer Service Institute of Australia.

Essential Energy is committed to improving customer service and safety as defined by the National Energy Retail Law and Rules. In 2023–24, there was one immediately reportable breach and no quarterly reportable breaches reported to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). The immediately reportable breach occurred in June 2024, when a life support customer was not provided four business days’ notice prior to a planned interruption.

Our Customer Contact Centre received 237,774 calls during 2023–24. On average, these calls were answered within 47 seconds, a three second improvement on the previous year. Fifty-two per cent of customers used our self-service automated interactive voice response to obtain outage information. Post-call surveys indicate that 94 per cent of customers are satisfied with their interaction with team members.

During 2023–24, we provided interpreting services to 12 customers in seven different languages. No employees used their language skills in their daily roles or received the NSW Community Language Allowance Scheme allowance.

The Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW received 229 complaints relating to Essential Energy during 2023–24. This is 2.4 complaints per 10,000¹ customers, continuing the downward trend from prior years – from 2.8 in 2022–23, 3.0 in 2021–22 and 3.6 in 2020–21.

Life Support (LS) customers rely on a continuous supply of electricity to run medical equipment. Essential Energy has mobile phone numbers for customers at registered LS premises, via a registration process.

To improve communications with LS customers during unplanned outages, we implemented a new service to automatically send SMS messages to LS customers affected by an unplanned outage.

The service aims to notify customers within 30 seconds of Essential Energy confirming an unplanned outage affecting their premises. Additional messages provide estimated power restoration times, updates, and notify when power is restored. This service commenced in October 2023.

Smart meters benefit customers by increasing visibility of energy use at different times of the day, allowing optimised use of appliances to take advantage of lower cost periods. Additional benefits include enabling the installation of solar panels and batteries, as well as accessing more retailer offers and technologies that can help to reduce energy costs.

Smart meters benefit Essential Energy by providing data to inform optimised network performance and investment planning – both of which can help to reduce customer network charges. Smart meters also enable remote meter reading.

During 2023–24, 109,000 smart meters were installed for customers connected to the Essential Energy network, bringing the total number to more than 414,000 as of 30 June 2024.

Installations have been progressing since 2016, from customer requests, solar system installations and retailers’ rollout programs.

To accelerate the deployment of smart meters across NSW, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has declared that all legacy meters (Type 5 and 6 meters) within NSW are to be replaced by smart meters by 2030. As a result, Essential Energy is developing a Legacy Meter Replacement Program (LMRP), in consultation with stakeholders. The LMRP will be submitted to the AER by 30 June 2025, with the AER to approve the LMRP by 29 August 2025. The LMRP will be implemented from 1 December 2025 to 1 December 2030. Smart meters will be deployed by registered Meter Coordinators and Meter Providers as directed by each customer’s retailer. By the end of the program, more than 924,000 smart meters will be connected to the Essential Energy network.

Our Customer Advocacy Group (CAG) provides a forum for feedback to inform our business decisions. The CAG includes representatives of consumer groups, low-income households, vulnerable customers, senior citizens, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, people with disabilities, residential customers, small business customers, industrial and commercial customers, primary producers, rural and remote customers and local government.

The CAG met four times during 2023–24, including a Lismore site tour to understand how the town is rebuilding for greater resilience after the devastating floods in 2022. Members heard directly from Essential Energy workers involved with immediate recovery and restoration efforts and discussed how Essential Energy is improving the resilience of our network and operations.

The Essential People’s Panel complements the CAG, enabling us to engage directly with customers on topical issues. The Panel has more than 20 members – diverse and representative residential and small business customers from across our network area.

During 2023–24, the Panel met three times to explore and provide feedback on finalising elements of our 2024–29 Regulatory Proposal, pass-through cost recovery, priority sustainability initiatives, community resilience support design, and improvements to serving customers at registered life support premises.

There are 86 local government councils within the Essential Energy network area. To maintain and strengthen relationships, we meet with a selection of councils every month, progressively moving through the full list of councils. We hear directly from executive management teams and mayors about potential improvement areas and discuss how we can work together more effectively for our communities. In these meetings, we met with 32 councils during 2023–24. We have also extended invitations to include regional Joint Organisations, with the first meeting held with the Canberra Region Joint Organisation in June 2024.

Essential Energy is committed to the safety of community members across our network area, for everyone to live and work safely around the electricity network.

Our annual Public Electrical Safety Awareness Plan (PESAP) seeks to raise awareness and understanding of the hazards associated with the network and how to minimise public safety risks. The Plan targets six key at-risk community segments: general public, agribusiness, building and construction, emergency services, aviation and transport.

Analysis of prior year public safety incident data identified three priorities for behaviour focused public safety campaigns during 2023-24:

• agricultural equipment and machinery contacting overhead powerlines
• motor vehicles contacting the electricity network
• construction machinery contacting the underground electricity network.

The number of public safety incidents in 2023–24 increased by 6.4 per cent compared with the previous year. Incident numbers increased 30.8 per cent in general public and decreased 10.8 per cent in agribusiness, 18.3 per cent in transport, 7.4 per cent in construction, and 6.7 per cent in aviation. Reported injuries fell 34 per cent compared with the prior year, and 54 per cent over the previous three years.

In early 2024, we undertook a survey with more than 750 customers (Essential Energy: Public Safety Behaviour and Awareness Research – 2024). The research provided insights about customers’ awareness and understanding of safety around the electricity network, and to ascertain the effectiveness of our public safety campaigns. A key insight was that 97 per cent of customers would contact Essential Energy immediately and stay well clear if they saw a fallen powerline. Also, 98 per cent of customers would think that electricity is still live and dangerous, and so stay clear if they saw a fallen powerline.

During the year we focused on increasing awareness of the network and encouraging safe behaviours in the agricultural sector. We worked with the NSW Farmers Association and agricultural publications to deliver ‘Look up and live’ campaigns and to promote our Aerial Markers program across digital, print and targeted email newsletters. Our team attended the NSW Farmers Conference, AgQuip, Henty Machinery Field Days and Primex events to share safety information with agricultural sector participants.

Our research partnership with the Centre for Work Health and Safety, the research arm of SafeWork NSW, is informing our understanding of agricultural worker perceptions and responses to electrical risks. A survey of 250 agricultural workers, along with 50 interviews, commenced in May 2024. The insights gained through this project will help inform future agricultural safety campaigns, with the intent to reduce agricultural machinery incidents through effective technical and educational interventions.

This year’s general public campaign focused on motor vehicle safety when coming into contact with an electricity network, with the theme ‘Stay. Call. Wait’ encouraging people to stay in their vehicle, call triple zero immediately, and wait for emergency services to arrive and give the all-clear to exit their vehicle.

Our subsequent community survey found 87 per cent of respondents would stay in the vehicle if they came into contact with the electricity network, an improvement on the 2023 result of 82 per cent.

To address building and construction sector safety, our 2023-24 campaign encouraged operators to plan ahead and identify overhead powerline or underground infrastructure locations before starting work. We continue to explore partnerships with industry groups, including the Master Builders Association, to further our engagement with this sector.

Electricity Safety Week raises awareness of electricity hazards and teaches primary school students how to be safe around electricity.

Each September, schools are provided with curriculum-aligned teaching resources developed in collaboration with the Department of Education.

In 2023, 853 schools (94 per cent of primary schools from our network area) registered for the program. Schools benefitted from two new resources, developed jointly with Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy: a 20-minute video-on-demand for the Distance & Rural Technology Learning Platform, and a Scratch Coding project to which Code Club Australia also contributed.

We empower local communities across our network area through a range of funding opportunities. Organisational and employee giving supports community groups, charities and stakeholders.

Our Essential Communities Program includes five key initiatives: Community Grants (previously known as Community Choices), Community Support, Essential Giving Program, Employee Request for Funding, and Sponsorships. We also partner with stakeholders and community organisations and provide scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

We provided a total of $330,192 to 33 community groups, stakeholders and charity organisations during 2023-24.

Community Grants (previously Community Choices)

We refreshed this program during 2023–24, changing its name and shifting to a grants-based initiative. Consequently, there was no program expenditure during the year.

The changes better align community investment with Essential Energy’s strategic and sustainability priorities, to increase impact and further relationships with local communities.

Community Support

In 2023–24, Community Support provided $54,200 to 15 community groups that make a difference in local communities across our network area.

Essential Giving Program and Employee Request for Funding

Essential Giving Program (EGP) is our workplace giving program, supporting eight charity partner organisations: Garvan Institute, Variety – the Children’s Charity, Lifeline, Can Assist, Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, ozED (Australian Ectodermal Dysplasia Support Group), the Children’s Tumour Foundation, and Royal Far West.

Employee EGP donations through regular pre-tax payroll deductions are matched by Essential Energy. Together we donated $216,062 to EGP partners in 2023–24. Employees donated $66,062 and Essential Energy donated $150,000 through dollar matching and an additional donation to each partner.

Employees can also fundraise through the Employee Request for Funding (ERF) program, in which employee requests are dollar matched up to $500 with approval from our Essential Communities Committee. In 2023–24, $52,305 of employee-initiated fundraising was raised, with an additional $7,625 dollar matched by Essential Energy through the ERF program.

The EGP and ERF total in 2023–24 was $275,992.

We have partnered with Uniting Financial Counselling to support customers in vulnerable circumstances since October 2021. We provided $60,000 in 2023–24, consistent with the previous year, supporting the in-depth assistance Uniting provides to customers most in need, including free financial advice and tailored counselling programs.

To support disadvantaged school students, we became an Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) Mentoring Program partner in 2023. Our employees volunteer as program mentors, supporting economically disadvantaged students in our network area. Essential Energy’s financial contribution helps to fund the program under an agreement to the end of 2025, with $33,333 provided in 2023–24.

We have partnered with Clontarf Foundation since 2018. Clontarf aims to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. We participate in Clontarf events such as employment forums and awards nights. We also provide opportunities such as depot tours, work experience placements and targeted apprentice and trainee recruitment program information for Clontarf students. No funding was provided during 2023–24 as we re-negotiated the partnership.

The Stars Foundation supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls and young women to attend and remain engaged at school, complete Year 12 and move into work or further study. Our partnership commenced in June 2022 to support the growth of Stars Academies in NSW. Stars established four academies in NSW during 2023, supported by our initial contribution. No funding was provided in 2023–24, with annual financial support expected to be provided during 2024–25.

In October 2023, we established a non-financial partnership with On-Country Pathways, an Indigenous owned and operated not-for-profit organisation based in Albury-Wodonga.

On-Country Pathways delivers employment and career pathway programs for First Nations people aged 15 to 24. Our support includes providing work experience and employment opportunities for young adults in the program.

We entered a partnership with The Pinnacle Foundation during 2023-24, supporting educational scholarships, mentoring and opportunities for young LGBTQIA+ Australians. Scholarships are awarded for full-time study at public higher education institutions. We provided $50,000 to support a three-year scholarship.

We also commenced a three-year partnership with the Regional Circularity Co-operative in 2024, part of the Bega Circularity Project, which is researching and promoting a circular economy. This initiative supports the development of a community circularity hub for the Bega region, fostering collaboration between organisations and experts and contributing to regional development.

Sponsorships for community organisations during 2023-24 included:

• Can Assist’s annual Can Do Challenge – assisting regional cancer patients with funding and support challenges
• Rotary Club of Warners Bay – helping with running costs for free health checks for men in rural and remote NSW
• Boys to the Bush’s Ride to Give initiative – providing funding for the Boys to the Bush initiative, to support the health and education of young people in regional and rural areas, including those experiencing social or financial disadvantage
• Clarence Valley Close the Gap – attending the Close the Gap event in Grafton, engaging with students to promote Essential Energy’s apprentice and trainee programs. Close the Gap aims to bridge disparities in health, education, employment and justice between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
• Children’s Tumour Foundation – to support research for Neurofibromatosis.

Our partnership with the Regional Australia Institute is now in its fourth year. We were platinum sponsors of the 2024 Regions Rising National Summit, which brings together government, industry, academia and communities to explore regional issues.

The Australian Renewable Heat Conference focuses on accelerating the transition to renewable energy, which aligns with Essential Energy’s strategic efforts to facilitate electrification and decarbonisation.

The International Conference on Energy Technologies for Future Grids was organised by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre (ITTC). Essential Energy is supporting the centre to enable the training of the next generation of engineers, share experiences gained from the Essential Energy connection portfolio, attract talent through industry placement positions, and improve Essential Energy’s internal workforce capabilities through interaction with the academic centre.

The Royal Society of NSW 2024 Annual Dinner and Presentation of Awards included a focus on the energy transition, electrification and decarbonisation.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholarship Program supports First Nations students studying across Essential Energy’s network area to expand their career opportunities, including offering paid work experience and potential employment after their studies are complete.

Students receive up to $10,000 per year for the duration of their degree and are invited to participate in Essential Energy’s Indigenous Reference Group, meet the Essential Energy team most relevant to their studies, and complete paid work experience during semester breaks.

During 2023–24 we supported five First Nations students, studying law, engineering and media/communications at Charles Sturt University and Southern Cross University. One of these students completed an internship before transitioning into our Graduate program in early 2024.