Accessing electricity assets on private property

For your homeAccessing electricity assets on private property

Sometimes our crews need to access private property to inspect, maintain and repair our electricity assets.

A crew member accessing private property to do inspection.

Many of our poles, lines and other equipment are situated on private properties, so access is essential to deliver safe and reliable power to our customers.

We may need to access your property to:

  • inspect or repair powerlines, poles or substations
  • read or inspect electricity meters
  • manage trees and vegetation near powerlines
  • restore power during outages
  • support new connections or upgrades
  • undertake planned maintenance
  • repair damaged equipment.

Under the Electricity Safety Act 1998, we have a legal obligation to conduct these inspections to mitigate risks to property owners and the wider community.

Please find answers to frequently answered questions below or contact our team on 13 22 06 for more information.

FAQs

Our legal rights and responsibilities

To support the work we do, Powercor (like all Victorian electricity distributors) is legally permitted to access private property to complete necessary electricity activities. This allows us to carry out important work without delay. These rights are set out in:

  • Electricity Industry Act 2000 (Section 93 [1]) – Grants legal access rights for network activities.
  • Deemed Distribution Contract – Requires property owners to provide safe and unhindered access to our authorised representatives at reasonable times (available here).

There are registered easements across many parts of our networks, which we are granted access to through the arrangements above. This allows for:

  • legal access to our equipment so we can undertake our work
  • restrictions on certain land uses near powerlines
  • continuity when properties change ownership.