Dear Major Customer,

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a challenging year and like many organisations, Ausgrid has also had to make tough decisions to ensure the ongoing health of our business.  The welfare of our people, customers and business partners is, as always, very important.  Due to the impacts of COVID-19, Ausgrid is taking steps to manage our workforce with as little impact as possible on our people, customers, Accredited Service Providers (ASPs) and contractors.

With this in mind, Ausgrid will be implementing a Christmas shutdown period for all but essential work.  The shutdown will be for 12 business days from 21 December 2020 to 10 January 2021 inclusive.

What services will be impacted?

During this Christmas shutdown period Ausgrid will have a limited capacity for essential work only. This will impact our service levels for the following Ancillary Network Services:

• Telephone, CRM and email enquiries.
• Processing of connection or relocation applications.
• Undertaking technical assessment of connection or relocation applications, including Preliminary Enquiries and Notification of Arrangements.
• Issuing and/or acceptance of offers.
• Preparation of design information.
• Undertaking design checking or certification of designs.

Note: Extensions of time and responses to enquiries may not occur until after 10 January 2021.

Outages, inspections and site meetings for customer-initiated works will not proceed during this period with a limited ability to respond to customer requests for these types of enquiries.  All customers and their ASPs will need to consider the impacts of this shutdown period when planning your works.

Additional to this shutdown period, it is recognised that Ausgrid experiences an increased volume of contestable works being undertaken on the network in the lead-up to the new year.  For planned works into January please take into account the addition of the Christmas shutdown.

Notwithstanding the above, it is imperative that works are carefully and accurately planned to ensure any unnecessary risk of cancellation to a planned outage is minimised.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation through these challenging times and hope that this early notice provides the best opportunity for you to plan your contestable works now and into the new year.

If you have any questions or need further information please contact us at majorconnections@ausgrid.com.au

Regards,

Major Customers

Customer & Strategy | Ausgrid

Level 12, 24-28 Campbell Street, Sydney NSW 2000

majorconnections@ausgrid.com.au