Essential Energy, owned by the NSW government, runs the electricity distribution network across 95% of New South Wales and part of southern Queensland. It does not sell power: customers pay a retailer. Its Essential Water arm supplies water and sewerage in Broken Hill.

Electricity network
- Activities
- DistributionWater
- Customers
- 900,000+· electricity customers, 2024-25
- Smart meters
- 500,542 meters, June 2025, fitted by retailers
- Outage time
- 230 min· SAIDI 2024-25, excl. major event days
- Outages
- 1.61· SAIFI per customer, 2024-25
- Network length
- 194,000 km· 11,000 km underground, 2024-25
- Coverage
- Regional NSW
- Coffs Harbour
- Port Macquarie
- Tamworth
- Dubbo
- Orange
- Wagga Wagga
- Albury
- Broken Hill
737,000 km² with part of southern Queensland. 4.9 customers per km of line, the lowest density in the National Electricity Market.