Licence conditions (including critical infrastructure and environmental obligations)
The Minister for Resources and Energy issues licences for the distribution and transmission of electricity in NSW, and IPART administers compliance with these licences on behalf of the Minister.
The following electricity networks are the licensed network services providers in NSW:
- Ausgrid (distribution)
- Endeavour Energy (distribution)
- Essential Energy (distribution)
- TransGrid (transmission)
- ACEREZ Partnership (Transmission)
The licences include conditions covering matters such as consumer protection and network reliability. The networks that have been fully or partially leased to private operators are also subject to critical infrastructure licence conditions and the NSW Code of Practice for Authorised Network Operators. This Code has been developed by the Department of Planning & Environment to manage the process through which activities undertaken by, or on behalf of, the leased electricity network operators (i.e. the Authorised Network Operators) are assessed in terms of environmental impact.
The networks have the ultimate responsibility to comply with these conditions, and IPART also holds them accountable on behalf of the community through risk-based compliance and enforcement including our Reporting and Auditing frameworks.
IPART may impose monetary and non-monetary penalties and take other actions it considers appropriate against licensees for contravention of licence conditions.
IPART also sets the licence fees to recover the costs of licence administration to the NSW Government.
For more information:
Licence Conditions and Regulatory Instruments