The EEA represents its members and acts as the voice of the industry, developing industry guides and providing submissions to government, regulators and industry groups to protect and enhance industry interests.
Developing and reviewing Industry Guides
The EEA facilitates the development and maintenance of guidelines and best practice documents that support and build on the knowledge and understanding of engineering, technical, and safety standards. We invite member input into this process.
Visit the EEA Guides page for guides currently under development or review
Public Submissions and Consultations
Consultation
Safety Manual Electricity Industry (SM-EI) 2026: Draft for consultation
The revised Safety Manual – Electricity Industry (SM-EI) is now open for industry consultation.
One of the most visible changes is the move back to an A5 booklet format, reflecting strong industry feedback that SM-EI needs to be practical to use in the field as well as accessible online.
The content has also been reshaped to make the document clearer, easier to navigate and more intuitive to use. This includes restructuring content into logical topic areas, improving sequencing, removing duplication and reviewing where SM-EI should provide rules and where it should reference other legislation, standards and guidance.
The review has been driven by feedback received over the past five years, including calls for a printed book-style version, simpler navigation and a more logical structure.
Online Webinars
To support the consultation, the EEA’s Safety Standards and Procedures Group (SSPG) will host two online webinars:
25 August 2026: What’s Changing and Why
A walkthrough of the key changes, why they have been made, and what they mean for people who use SM-EI.
Free to attend but you will need to register via link below.
SM-EI Review Webinar: What’s Changing and Why
10 September 2026: Your Questions Answered
An opportunity to ask questions, seek clarification and hear directly from members of the SSPG about the consultation draft. This is not a formal feedback session, and formal submissions should still be made through the EEA consultation process.
Free to attend but you will need to register via link below.
SM-EI Q&A Webinar: Your Questions Answered
Consultation Documents
We encourage everyone who uses, applies or relies on SM-EI to review the consultation draft and provide feedback. This is an important opportunity to make sure the revised format and content work for industry in practice.
Your input will help ensure the final SM-EI remains a practical and trusted by industry, for industry safety document.
SM-EI – For Consultation – August 2026
EEA Guide Consultation Comment Form – SM-EI 2026
Email your feedback to admin@eea.co.nz.
Consultation feedback closes Friday 2nd October 2026 at 5pm.
Submissions made by the EEA in 2026
- Electricity Authority; Future Security and Resilience Parts 1 7 and 8 Common Quality Requirements
- Electricity Authority; Non-discrimination obligations – Retail Price Consistency Assessment (RPCA) uncommitted capacity and other matters
- Electricity Authority; Reducing Barriers for New Connections – Up-Front Charges and Distributor Obligations January 2026
- NZ Parliament – Transport and Infrastructure Committee; Public Works Amendment Bill January 2026