Power supply for a new warehouse: the Energex connection, start to finish

By Brenscot Builders | Last reviewed September 2026

Power is the service most often left until the building is designed. That is the wrong order. The capacity you can get, the substation you may have to accommodate and the time the connection takes all have consequences for the site layout and the programme, and by the time the slab is poured your options have narrowed considerably.

This article sets out how an industrial connection actually works in the Energex network, what decides which process you fall into, and where the delays come from.

The short answer

A warehouse drawing more than 100 amps per phase is a negotiated connection, not a basic one, and three-phase supply becomes mandatory. Energex publishes response times for making an offer, but it does not publish an end-to-end duration from enquiry to energisation, and the response times are paperwork windows rather than a delivery programme. If the network in the street cannot carry your load, you will likely pay a capital contribution, and the exemption that protects small customers expressly excludes real estate developers. If the site needs its own substation, it comes with clearance and 24-hour crane access requirements that have to be in the site plan from concept.

Who you are actually dealing with

Four parties, and the sequence trips people up.

• Your electrical contractor, or for a larger connection an accredited consultant, prepares and lodges the work with Energex. This is where it starts.
• Energex is the distributor. It assesses the application, makes the connection offer, and connects supply up to the load side of the metering isolation links. It issues the national metering identifier.
• Your retailer sells you the electricity and issues the service order that asks Energex to connect the premises.
• The metering coordinator or metering provider, appointed through the retailer, supplies and installs the meter. Energex does not supply the meter.

The retailer is needed at the end, not the beginning. But leave it too late and it becomes the thing holding you up, because a connection point will not be energised until a financially responsible market participant has been nominated and the documentation is complete. In practice that means appointing a retailer early enough for them to appoint a metering coordinator and issue the service order.

Basic or negotiated: the threshold that matters

Energex's connection policy provides for basic, standard and negotiated connections, but standard connection services are currently not offered. For an industrial customer it is basic or negotiated.

Everyone fixates on the large customer threshold, which is a total requested capacity greater than 1,000 kVA. For a typical warehouse that is the wrong number to watch.

The threshold that actually bites is 100 amps per phase in an urban area, which is where basic connection eligibility ends. At 400 volts that is roughly 69 kVA. A basic connection also requires that no network augmentation beyond minor works is needed, that a line is available, and it excludes new or modified distribution connected units.

So a warehouse of any real size is a negotiated connection long before it is anywhere near 1 MVA. That matters because the published offer timeframes are very different, and because Energex states plainly that negotiated connections do not qualify as basic connections, so expedited processing is not available.

Three-phase is not optional

The Queensland Electricity Connection Manual sets this out: for a single customer installation with a maximum demand of 100 amps or less, single-phase, two-phase or three-phase can be provided as requested. Above 100 amps, three-phase is required.

For any warehouse with compressors, refrigeration, workshop plant, forklift charging or a decent office air conditioning load, three-phase is a given. The real question is not whether you can have three-phase, but whether the network in your street can carry the capacity you need.

What happens when the network cannot carry your load

Energex distinguishes augmentation, meaning work to enlarge the existing network or increase its capacity, from an extension, meaning augmentation requiring a power line or facility outside the present boundaries of the network.

Where the incremental cost of serving you exceeds the incremental revenue you bring, a capital contribution is payable. Energex calculates it as the incremental connection cost plus the incremental shared network cost, less incremental revenue over a defined number of years.

There is an exemption for low voltage urban connections where demand does not exceed 100 amps per phase, but it expressly excludes real estate developers. A warehouse developer above that threshold should assume a capital contribution is in play and ask about it at enquiry stage rather than discovering it in the connection offer.

One thing that works in your favour: where you fund a dedicated extension and additional customers connect to it within seven years, Energex's pioneer scheme provides for refunds, depreciated straight line over a twenty-year asset life. If you are first into a new industrial estate, that is worth understanding.

Do not treat the free capacity map as an answer. Energex publishes a Network Load and Export Capacity Map showing indicative asset location, rating and estimated capacity. Its own disclaimer says the information is general in nature, may rest on assumptions that change with time, "should not be relied upon", and is not a substitute for independent advice. It is a screening tool. Only a formal connection enquiry gives you a number you can build a budget on.

If the site needs its own substation

Energex publishes maximum load capacity guidelines by voltage. Low voltage is guided to around 1.5 MVA, 11 kV to 5 MVA, 22 kV to 10 MVA, and upwards from there. Where the load exceeds what the low voltage network can reasonably serve, the site takes a high voltage supply and needs a transformer on site, usually a padmount.

A padmount is not a small imposition on an industrial site layout, and the requirements are specific:

• No building or permanent structure within 5 m vertical clearance
• 4 m separation from the transformer plinth to offices and liveable areas
• 1 m clearance to the sides and rear, and 2 m at the front for access
• A 4 m wide clear access path, because padmounts need mobile crane access at any time of day or night, seven days a week
• Not within 10 m of a fire hydrant

Read those against a typical warehouse site plan and the conflicts are obvious. A truck apron across the access path, an awning overhead, or a padmount tucked hard against a boundary to keep it out of the way will not pass. This belongs in the concept site plan, next to the truck swept paths and the stormwater devices, not in the services coordination at the end.

On ownership, connection assets are owned and operated by the distributor, and the customer's assets sit downstream of the connection point. Under a design, construct and transfer arrangement the customer designs and builds the transferable connection assets at its own expense and then transfers them to Energex to own and operate.

Timing: read the published figures carefully

Energex publishes response timeframes, and they are worth knowing:

Here is the important caveat, and it is the single most useful thing in this article. Every one of those figures is a timeframe for Energex to respond to paperwork. None of them covers design, construction, augmentation or energisation. Energex's large customer connection manual includes indicative construction timeframes but states expressly that they are estimates only and may not reflect actual timeframes.

There is no published end-to-end duration from enquiry to energisation for an industrial connection. Anyone who quotes you one is estimating. Plan the programme around the connection being a long-lead item with an uncertain tail, get the enquiry in early, and treat the offer windows as the minimum, not the total.

Contestable works

Some of the design and construction work for assets dedicated to your connection can be done by an accredited service provider rather than by Energex. Energex maintains lists of accredited service providers by work category, including large customer connection design and construction, underground construction and overhead mains construction.

Two delivery models exist. Under design, construct and transfer, you design and build the connection assets at your expense and transfer them to Energex. Under build, own and operate, Energex designs, constructs, owns and operates them.

The practical argument for the contestable route is programme control: your accredited provider works to your programme rather than queuing for Energex delivery. Whether that saves time or money on a particular job depends on the job, and Energex's own constraint is that it will not accept a higher level of risk than if it had done the work itself.

Note for Queensland readers: there is no numbered "ASP Level 1, 2, 3" system here. That is a New South Wales construct. Energex accredits by work category.

Solar and embedded generation

If you are putting solar on the roof, it runs on a separate track from your load connection. See solar on warehouse roofs.

Inverter systems up to and including 30 kVA are treated as a small inverter energy system. Above 30 kVA the system is a distributed energy resource system with its own application pathway. A large warehouse roof easily crosses that threshold.

Separately, the emergency backstop mechanism applies where the total approved inverter capacity at the connection point is 10 kVA and above, for systems approved on or after 6 February 2023. Those systems must have a grid service device capable of demand response mode 0, which allows the network operator to curtail generation when the mechanism is activated. Dynamic connections, which allow larger exports in exchange for a variable limit, are a separate and optional arrangement rather than the same thing as the backstop.

Sizing the connection: what to include

Ask for the capacity the building will actually draw over its life, not the capacity it needs on day one. Things that get left out:

• Future tenant fit-out. A speculative building leased to an unknown occupier may face a very different load than the base building assumed.
• Forklift and EV charging. Under NCC 2022 clause J9D4, a carpark associated with a Class 7b or 8 building needs distribution board provision dedicated to electric vehicle charging, with capacity to accommodate 7 kW chargers at 20% of spaces, and a charging control system able to manage and schedule charging. The clause requires provision, not installed chargers, and because it mandates a load management system you can reasonably size the connection on managed rather than coincident peak load. But whatever the design intends to draw has to be reflected in the maximum demand you declare. A site that later fits out its bays without having declared the load is back in a negotiated variation, possibly with a capital contribution.
• Refrigeration, compressed air and process plant, which are the loads most likely to be added after handover.

There is no published Energex guidance on how the NCC electric vehicle provisions interact with connection sizing, so this is a judgement for the electrical engineer rather than a rule to follow.

What gets people caught

1. Assuming the connection is basic. Above 100 amps per phase it is negotiated, and the published offer window is 65 business days with no expedited path.
2. Leaving the padmount out of the concept site plan. The clearances and the 24-hour crane access path conflict with truck aprons, awnings and boundary setbacks if they arrive late.
3. Appointing the retailer too late. Energisation is gated on the retailer nomination and documentation.
4. Budgeting no capital contribution. The exemption excludes developers.
5. Treating the capacity map as confirmation. It carries an express disclaimer.
6. Reading the published response windows as a delivery programme. They are not.

Frequently asked questions

Does my warehouse need three-phase power?

Almost certainly. Where maximum demand exceeds 100 amps, three-phase is required under the Queensland Electricity Connection Manual, and most warehouses with plant, refrigeration or workshop equipment are well past that.

What is the difference between a basic and a negotiated connection?

A basic connection is available where supply can be provided within defined limits, including 100 amps per phase in an urban area and no network augmentation beyond minor works. Anything outside that is negotiated. Standard connections are not currently offered by Energex.

How long does it take to get power connected to a new warehouse?

Energex publishes response times for making a connection offer, including 65 business days for a negotiated offer, but it does not publish an end-to-end time from enquiry to energisation, and its own indicative construction timeframes are stated to be estimates only. Treat the connection as a long-lead item and start it early.

Who pays if the network has to be upgraded?

Usually the customer, through a capital contribution, calculated as the incremental connection and shared network costs less incremental revenue. The exemption for connections up to 100 amps per phase does not apply to real estate developers.

Will I need a substation on my site?

It depends on the load. Energex guides low voltage supply to around 1.5 MVA, above which the site takes a high voltage supply and needs a transformer, usually a padmount. If one is needed, its clearances and 24-hour crane access have to be designed into the site layout from the start.

Sources

• Energex, Connection Policy 2025-30 (effective 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2030), energex.com.au
• Energex, Basic Connection Service Model Standing Offer: Connecting Metered Load
• Energex, Large Customer Connection Manual, and STNW3522 Standard for Large Customer Connections
• Energex, Development adjoining or in proximity to a padmount transformer guideline
• Energex, Network Load and Export Capacity Map; connections, connection charges and contestable works pages
• Energex, emergency backstop mechanism and larger systems over 30 kVA guidance
• Queensland Electricity Connection Manual (QECM) and Queensland Electricity Metering Manual (QEMM), Energex and Ergon Energy
• National Construction Code 2022, Volume One, clause J9D4 and Table J9D4, ncc.abcb.gov.au
• Queensland Government, Building and Plumbing Newsflash 638 (NCC 2025 commencement deferred to 1 May 2027)

General information only

This article is general information, current as at September 2026. It is not electrical engineering advice. Energex's policies, standards, thresholds and fees change, and the answer for any site depends on the local network. Confirm the position with a licensed electrical contractor, a suitably qualified engineer and a formal connection enquiry to Energex before relying on any of it.

Planning an industrial warehouse?

Talk to Brenscot about your site or your requirements. Call 0480 800 077, email enquiries@brenscot.com.au, or start an enquiry. You can also read how we work.