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Major connections

If you want to establish a major customer connection, our dedicated Major Customer Team can guide and assist you through the connection process.

What is a major customer connection? Major customer connections are typically high rise buildings and commercial or industrial sites, like shopping centres, exhibition centres, warehouses and mine sites.

In our latest Pricing Proposal, a Major Customer Connection is defined as one that is for a Connection Asset Customer (CAC), Individually Calculated Customer (ICC) or an Embedded Generator (EG). These are usually sites where the load exceeds 1,000 kVA or 1 MVA or where power usage is typically above 4 GWh per annum at a single site or generation that is above 30 kV.

New Standard for Major Customer Connections

On 25 October 2022, STNW3522 Standard for Major Customer Connections (PDF 1.8 mb) was released. Any new applications from this date will be required to comply with this standard. We encourage industry members involved in the connection of Major Customers to read the standard to understand the rules, your obligations and the benefits.

For details about the connection process for a Major Customer, please refer to our Major Customer Connection Manual (PDF 593.7 kb).

Customers wanting an Embedded Generating System should design their connections for the technical requirements in:

Applying for a load connection > 1 MVA

This process covers load connections greater than 1 MVA, and aligns with Chapter 5A of the National Electricity Rules (NER). Comprehensive information about the connection process, including the services we provide and the relevant fees involved, is contained in our Major Customer Connection Load and Connection Services Guideline (PDF 3.0 mb).

There are five main stages in the process.

  1. 1 Enquiry and technical assessment

    Submit a formal connection enquiry to us. You or your consultant can submit an enquiry through Customer Self Service or use our manual form Major Customer Connection Enquiry Form (MCF003) (PDF 487.4 kb) and follow the instructions. We'll do the necessary network investigations and provide an estimate of costs and timeframes after receiving all the required information from you. This estimate should help you to decide if you'll proceed and submit a connection application.

    After we receive your enquiry, we'll allocate a Project Sponsor who'll be your single point of contact right through the connection process. They'll maintain regular contact with you and do their best to ensure your needs are met.

    IMPORTANT: When completing the enquiry online, go to the ‘MyConnect’ section, select ‘Enquiry’, and then ‘Large Customer Connection’.

  2. 2 Application and offer to connect

    If you wish to proceed, your consultant can submit the application on your behalf or you can submit it via Customer Self Service or use our manual form Major Customer Connection Application Form (MCF004) (PDF 458.3 kb) and follow the instructions. We'll complete further scoping and estimating to provide a connection offer for your acceptance.

  3. 3 Offer acceptance

    You consider our connection offer and complete and return the necessary agreements to accept the offer.

  4. 4 Connection contract

    The National Electricity Rules provides that after a Connection Application is made, the parties are to enter into a Negotiated Ongoing Connection Contract (we call this the Connection Agreement). This governs the ongoing connection of your facility to our distribution network after the completion of the works (rather than rely upon the Deemed Standard Connection Contract that applies by default under legislation).

    In addition, where works are required to establish or modify a generation connection to our distribution network, we require you to enter into a Negotiated Connection Establishment Contract (we call this the Construction Contract). This sets out the works that both parties will need to perform for the connection.

  5. 5 Detailed design, construction and commissioning

    Detailed design is finalised and the connection is constructed and energised.

Applying for a HV generation connection

For connecting a high voltage embedded generator, please refer to our Large generation and batteries web page.

Get in touch

Do you have a specific question about major customer connections? If so, please refer to our Major Customer Team web page.