About us

Power and Water transmits and distributes electricity, and provides water and sewerage services, across the Northern Territory. We are a government-owned corporation.

Where we operate Our roles and services

What we do

Water and wastewater

We provide water and wastewater services to urban and remote customers across the Northern Territory. We manage ground and surface water supplies, and wastewater treatment plants as well as water and sewerage pipelines.

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Power networks and distribution

In most major centres, we distribute electricity through the power networks we maintain, from the wires to the meters. This power is then sold to customers by their selected energy retailer.

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Serving remote customers

Power and Water supplies electricity, water and sewerage services in 72 remote communities. Unlike urban centres, in remote areas we generate, distribute and retail power.

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Distributing electricity to over 244,000 people and providing safe drinking water and wastewater services, while maintaining 37, 500km of poles and towers, 10,520 km of overhead lines, 3,012km of water mains, 1,608km of sewer mains across 1.3 million square kilometres of the Northern Territory.

Where we operate

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Our roles and services

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We provide water and wastewater services to customers across the Northern Territory.

We operate the Northern Territory's power networks and manage electricity distribution, but we don’t generate the electricity or sell power except in some remote locations.

This means we make sure the power is running through the network to your property, and look after the poles, lines and meters that carry it there from a generator. We take meter readings and pass this on to your power retailer who then bills you and takes payment.

You can view a full list of Northern Territory residential power retailers here.

Our not-for-profit subsidiary Indigenous Essential Services provides electricity, water and sewerage services to 72 Indigenous communities and 79 outstations.

We contract and train Essential Services Operators through local councils, Aboriginal enterprises and private contractors to run facilities day-to-day. Learn more about remote power and networks.

For most business customers, the way we supply and serve you will be the same as for residential customers. If you're in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek or Alice Springs, you’ll still buy your electricity through a power retailer.

There may be some extra things we need you to know if you're in business or managing a commercial property, such as trade waste or backflow prevention. If you're developing commercial or residential properties, take a look at our develop and build site to access standards, specifications and guidelines.

Developers and builders can gain quick and easy access to drawings, core guidelines and applications we provide to assist with planning, designing, building and sign off.

Find out more about our building and development processes.

Our gas unit supplies gas to electricity generators and other major gas users.

Power and Water purchases natural gas from the offshore Blacktip field in Bonaparte Gulf, off the Northern Territory coast.

It is processed onshore near Wadeye and transported via the Bonaparte Gas Pipeline and Amadeus Gas Pipeline for large customers, including the Territory's main electricity generators.

We also supply gas to industrial customers for reticulation, power generation, compressed natural gas and liquid natural gas production.

Electricity regulation

Power and Water is currently transitioning our electricity network regulation from the local Utilities Commission to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).

While the AER assumed responsibility from Northern Territory's network regulation on 1 July 2015, the first determination being made for Power and Water under the National Electricity Law and Rules took effect on 1 July 2019.

More about the transition to AER

Electricity market operation

Power and Water is also the Territory's interim Market Operator, responsible for managing the wholesale exchange of electricity between generators and retailers.

More about the Market Operator

Planning and reporting

To find out more about what we do, why we do it, and what we plan to do next, read:

Supporting the Territory

Power and Water plays and essential role in the Territory community, we're part of everyday life here. We're an employer of choice, and rely on Territory contractors and suppliers for all kinds of goods and services. Our community partnerships program helps us give back and contribute to the Territory in meaningful ways.

More about working with us

Power and Water in the community