On 20 April 2026, the AER received a waiver application from Essential Energy seeking an exemption from clauses 3.1(b) and 4.2 of the Ring‑fencing guideline (electricity distribution). The proposed waiver would support Essential Energy’s ARENA-funded ‘Plug and Play’ trial, under which it plans to install, maintain and lease 300 kerbside EV chargers in regional NSW.
The chargers would be housed in a recessed charging port within composite streetlight and distribution poles. Essential Energy is seeking the waiver until 30 June 2033. If granted, it would allow the business to lease the charging infrastructure within the poles to charge point operators and use its staff to maintain the equipment. Essential Energy’s role would be limited to owning, installing, maintaining and leasing the infrastructure, while retail charging services such as pricing, billing and customer engagement would be provided by charge point operators.
The ‘Plug and Play’ trial has two streams. This waiver application relates to stream 2, which involves leasing 300 EV chargers embedded in composite poles. Stream 1 focuses on reducing site-selection and connection barriers across 1,000 poles to make sites charger-ready for third-party EV charger deployment. Together, the two streams are intended to test whether reducing barriers alone is enough to encourage market participation, or whether DNSP-owned shared infrastructure is needed in some locations.
We are seeking stakeholders' views on the opportunities and risks of a DNSP owning and leasing EV charging infrastructure in regional NSW.
To support consultation, we have released an accompanying consultation paper outlining these issues and our questions for stakeholder feedback. We encourage stakeholders to provide written submissions and to participate in the stakeholder workshop being held as part of this consultation.
Have your say
The AER invites stakeholders to provide written submissions by Tuesday 14 July 2026. Submissions and requests to make a submission via alternative methods should be emailed to AERringfencing
aer [dot] gov [dot] au (AERringfencing[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au).
The AER prefers to make written submissions publicly available, to facilitate an informed and transparent consultative process. Written submissions will be treated as public documents unless otherwise requested.
Stakeholder workshop
The AER will hold a public stakeholder workshop online on Tuesday 23 June as part of the public consultation process.
Please register your interest at this link.
The workshop will give stakeholders an opportunity to ask Essential Energy questions and gather the information they need to make a well-informed submission to the AER. Essential Energy will present its proposed trial, including its approach and the key benefits and risks. The AER will then facilitate a Q&A session.