Ongoing maintenance works

Who are we?

Endeavour Energy is responsible for the safe and reliable supply of electricity to 2.7 million people in households and businesses across Sydney’s Greater West, Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands the Illawarra and the South Coast. We have an ongoing commitment to safely supply electricity within the Endeavour Energy network, which is our reason for contacting you today.

Why maintenance matters for reliable power

Regular maintenance is essential to ensure the safety, reliability, and consistency of your electricity supply. Our network operates 24/7, exposed to weather, vegetation, and the demands of a growing community. Proactive maintenance helps us identify and address potential issues before they become outages or safety hazards, protecting both our customers and the broader community.

Types of maintenance work we undertake

To keep the network running smoothly, our teams carry out a wide range of maintenance activities, including:

  • Tree trimming: Managing vegetation near powerlines to prevent outages and bushfire risks.
  • Pole repairs and replacements: Addressing leaning, damaged, or deteriorating poles to maintain structural integrity.
  • Cable fault repairs: Locating and fixing faults in both underground and overhead cables to restore and maintain supply.
  • Crossarm and insulator replacements: Replacing worn or damaged crossarms and insulators to prevent failures and improve reliability.
  • Switchgear and transformer maintenance: Servicing and upgrading critical equipment like transformers, reclosers, and switchgear to ensure safe operation.
  • Routine inspections: Conducting regular checks on network assets to detect and resolve minor issues before they escalate.
  • Follow-up restoration work: After storms or accidents, our priority is to restore power safely and quickly, and this may require temporary fixes to the network. Once supply is restored, we may return to complete more permanent repairs or upgrades, ensuring the network is fully restored to its long-term standards and resilience.

Ongoing maintenance delivers lasting value for customers by reducing the risk of unexpected power interruptions and minimising unplanned outages through early intervention. By proactively addressing potential hazards - such as fallen lines, electrical faults, and fire risks - we help keep the community safe. Well-maintained infrastructure ensures stable voltage and fewer disruptions, providing homes and businesses with consistent, high-quality power. Preventative maintenance is also more cost-effective than emergency repairs, which helps manage network costs and, over time, keeps customer bills lower.

As our network is strengthened and maintained, it becomes better equipped to support new connections, increased demand, and the integration of renewable energy sources ensuring reliable service and supporting future growth for all customers.

Important considerations during the outage
  • If you’re a life support customer please activate your back-up plan immediately. If you are not currently registered for life support and require power for the use of medical devices please call 131 003 to commence the registration process.
  • Once power supply is lost, automatic garage doors will not open. It is always good to know how to manually open, close and safely secure your garage door in case of a loss of power.
  • Some of the trucks used to repair electricity infrastructure are large and we may be forced to park across driveways to enable safe access to complete the work required. Talk to our crew when they arrive onsite if you need access to your vehicle, they will work with you to find a suitable time.
  • In rural areas loss of power often results in loss of water. If you require power for water pumps at your property please consider alternate power generation (I.e. Petrol generators) or alternate water supplies for the duration of the outage.
  • Should there be adverse weather, the job may be rescheduled to another date – we know this is difficult where customers have made alternative arrangements, however our crew is unable to work on live wires during heavy rain or very strong winds.
What to expect when our team is onsite

If maintenance is required on power poles, overhead powerlines, or overhead switches, it usually takes us about a day to finish the work. For safety reasons, we must turn off the power to the poles and wires we're working on. We might also need to deliver the new pole a few days before we start the work. Don't worry, we'll put it in a safe place on the footpath or nature strip and mark it clearly.

On the day of the upgrade, you'll see several team members and several trucks from Endeavour Energy. We'll also have 1-2 elevated platforms for our team to work at height, and a crane borer digging holes to install power poles. Please be aware that this could affect traffic and might even require us to close some narrow streets. After we finish, we might leave old poles onsite because we need a special vehicle to remove them. We'll be back to collect them within 3-5 business days.

Example of what you may see during overhead powerline work.

Example of what you may see during overhead powerline work

If we're working with underground cables, you'll see more digging. Replacing these cables usually takes 4-6 weeks, depending on the weather, but your power should only be off for 1 day during this time. We do the work in stages, with each part needing to be finished before we can start the next.

Here's what you can expect if we're replacing underground cables,

  1. We'll dig trenches using small excavators to access and install new conduits (pipes) and expose the existing cables.
  2. We'll install temporary fencing or fill the trenches with sand temporarily to keep everyone safe.
  3. We'll remove the old cables and replace them with new ones. We might also need to install new pillars to connect individual buildings to the network.
  4. We'll need to interrupt your power supply to connect your property to the new cables. We'll let you know when this is happening.
  5. Once you're connected to the new cables, we'll remove and dispose of any old, unnecessary pillars.
  6. Finally, we'll clean up and restore the area to how it was before we started. This could involve laying new turf or footpaths, depending on what your local council wants.

During this work, you'll see our teams, trucks, and equipment. There might be some noise and dust, but we'll do our best to keep it to a minimum. We might need to store some equipment on footpaths and nature strips before we install it, and our work might limit access to street parking and footpaths. We'll always try to keep your driveway accessible unless we've arranged something different with you. Sometimes we might need to control traffic to keep everyone safe. If we're working right in front of your property, please think about where you put your bins so your garbage service isn't disrupted.

Example of what you may see during underground cable work.

Example of what you may see during underground cable work

Why now?

The scheduling of these works often takes place months ahead, so we can't predict the weather conditions on the day of the job. While we typically aim to carry out tasks during regular working hours, some factors may necessitate night or weekend work. This could be to minimize disruption to businesses, to avoid affecting sensitive areas like schools, or to manage traffic as per the requirements of Transport for NSW.

We adhere to specific guidelines about the type of work that can be performed during extreme weather, and these tasks comply with those rules. A significant amount of planning and coordination is involved to ensure safe access to the network. Therefore, last-minute rescheduling is not an easy task and could considerably delay the project. Hence, even on hot or cold days that are within our guidelines, the work must go ahead as planned to prevent significant setbacks and to maintain our service quality.

Outage Hints and Tips:

Protect your personal safety, electrical equipment and improve your outage experience by following these helpful tips:

  • try to keep your fridge and freezer closed as much as possible to avoid food spoiling
  • switch off any electronic equipment and disconnect it from the power outlet prior to the interruption. This includes items such as computers, printers, internet modems & routers, media players, television sets and electronic timers
  • switch off three phase motors such as air conditioners and garage doors
  • recharge or replace batteries for portable devices such as mobile phones, tablets, radios and torches
  • do not arrange for electrical work to be undertaken within your premises during the outage
  • if you have solar panels, check your system is restored once the outage is complete. Not all solar inverters will switch back on automatically.
  • once your power has been switched off, remember any automatic/electric door (garage doors etc.) will not operate, so it is good to move your car out before the planned outage, or understand how to use the manual override.
  • in rural areas loss of power often results in loss of water. If you require power for water pumps at your property please consider alternate power generation (I.e. Petrol generators) or alternate water supplies for the duration of the outage.
  • gas powered stoves and hot water systems rely on electricity supply in order to ignite, you therefore will not have these available during the planned outage.
  • your NBN internet and home phone service will not be available without your electricity supply (unless backup infrastructure has been installed), so please make alternate arrangements
  • don’t turn any electric appliances on during your planned outage and leave them on, as often they will turn on when supply is restored and you least expect it
  • consider purchasing an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) connected to any critical devices which may be required during a planned outage
  • a USB power bank may provide backup to charge any USB devices (phones etc) during a planned outage
  • our construction works often require road closures. This could affect bus routes on the day of the works, so please be across any potential impacts to your commute
  • please be aware that we may be working in your street on days scheduled for your bin pickup. If possible, try to place bins in a location that they can be picked up.
Questions or concerns

For further information about Endeavour Energy or outages in your area speak with our team on 131 003 or reach out using Facebook or Twitter.