Power and Water Corporation
Power and Water is the Northern Territory’s network operator. Its basic connection runs through three parties rather than two — the electrician applies, the network assesses, and the customer’s retailer then sends the request that actually gets the work scheduled — and remote communities on isolated power stations are handled separately from the main towns.
What they assess
- Banded by size, and by choice
- Most residential and small commercial work runs as a basic connection. A job becomes negotiated either because it falls outside the basic definition or because the applicant elects to negotiate the terms — the second route is available rather than imposed.
- Lodged by the electrician, by recommendation
- The network strongly recommends a licensed electrician or electrical contractor completes the application, because it asks for technical detail about the property, the installation and the proposed connection, and incomplete answers delay assessment.
- Assessment can pull the site into scope
- A technical assessment follows lodgement and may come back asking for more information or a property inspection rather than a straight yes, and depending on the location a pre-approval may also be needed.
Where it snags
Approval does not schedule the work. Once the network says the application can proceed, the customer has to contact their retailer, and the connection is only scheduled after the retailer’s request and all the documentation have arrived. A job that looks stalled after approval is usually waiting on the retailer step rather than on the network. Power and Water — basic connection
The paperwork after the work is part of the connection, not an afterthought. A Certificate of Compliance is what finalises it, and an embedded generation connection on the negotiated path also needs its commissioning documentation submitted. Power and Water — negotiated connections
The network charges the cost of connecting the meter to the retailer that raised the request, and the retailer may pass it on. Worth asking the retailer about before the customer is quoted a total. Power and Water — basic connection
Remote communities are a separate case. They run off isolated power stations that rooftop solar can destabilise, so the network treats remote solar separately and points remote customers to their own page — start a remote job there, not from the town pathway. Power and Water — solar power and battery energy storage systems
Go straight to
Confirm the distributor from the bill, NMI record or connection approval before relying on this page. Embedded networks, remote grids and private networks may use a different authority. The connection offer and the site-specific approval override anything general, here or on the distributor’s own site. Reviewed 2026-09-28.
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