Shop fit-out electrical: what a small Melbourne business needs

Quick answer

Any commercial fit-out in Victoria needs licensed electrical work, a Certificate of Electrical Safety for every new circuit or alteration, and — in most occupancies — compliant emergency lighting and exit signs under the National Construction Code. Three-phase power is worth planning for if your tenancy will run commercial refrigeration, heavy HVAC, or kitchen equipment.

What “fit-out electrical” actually covers

When you take on a commercial tenancy and start building out your shop, café, or office, you’re not just hanging shelves and picking a paint colour. You’re modifying a building’s electrical installation — and that brings it squarely under Victoria’s electrical licensing and safety framework.

Fit-out electrical work typically includes new lighting circuits, additional power points (including dedicated circuits for large equipment), data and communications rough-in, aircon wiring, signage power, and — critically — emergency lighting and exit signs. Each of these is installation work that must be done by a licensed electrician and signed off with a Certificate of Electrical Safety (CoES).

Energy Safe Victoria is clear on this: a CoES must be issued for any electrical installation work, alteration, or addition. That document is what tells your insurer, your landlord, and any future building inspector that the work was done correctly and to the standard required by AS/NZS 3000 (the Wiring Rules).

If you’re fitting out in Brunswick or Preston, the age of the building stock is worth thinking about. Many commercial strips in inner-north Melbourne run through older buildings with dated switchboards and single-phase-only supply. That matters a great deal if your business plan involves any serious electrical load.

Three-phase power: do you need it?

Single-phase power (the standard 240V supply) handles most light retail loads without a problem. Lighting, a couple of power points, a small split-system aircon — single-phase is fine.

The question changes the moment you add commercial refrigeration, a commercial dishwasher, a large HVAC system, an espresso machine with a boiler, or any kind of industrial cooking equipment. These are high-draw loads, and stacking them on a single-phase supply causes two problems: the supply struggles under load, and you run a real risk of nuisance tripping that interrupts your business.

Three-phase power (415V, three live conductors) distributes that load evenly and gives you headroom. Many hospitality fit-outs genuinely need it. Whether the existing building supply is three-phase, or whether upgrading it is possible, is something to find out early — ideally before you sign the lease, or at least before you commit to an equipment list.

That’s a conversation worth having with your commercial electrician at the earliest opportunity, not after the kitchen has been designed around a 32A single-phase supply that the building can’t deliver.

Dedicated circuits for refrigeration and heavy equipment

Even where the overall supply is adequate, individual pieces of equipment need their own dedicated circuits. A commercial fridge, a cool room, a chest freezer — none of these should share a circuit with general power points. When a circuit trips, you want to know immediately which piece of equipment caused it, and you want the others to keep running.

Under AS/NZS 3000, certain equipment categories require their own circuit protection. In practice, a good fit-out electrician will plan dedicated circuits for:

• Commercial refrigeration (each unit or group)
• Cooking and heating equipment
• Large aircon or HVAC systems
• Any equipment with a motor (compressors, exhaust fans, extraction systems)

Getting this right at fit-out is far less disruptive than retrofitting circuits once the shop is trading. A variation on electrical work once walls are lined and shelving is in place is always more involved than doing it once from the slab up.

Emergency lighting and exit signs: not optional

This is where a lot of small business owners get caught out. Emergency lighting and illuminated exit signs are a National Construction Code (NCC) requirement for most commercial occupancies, not a nice-to-have.

The requirement is straightforward: if the mains power supply fails, emergency lighting must activate automatically and provide enough illumination for occupants to safely evacuate the building. Exit signs must remain illuminated during an emergency. Both systems must be maintained and tested at regular intervals.

What this means in practice is battery-backed emergency luminaires (usually self-contained units with a built-in battery and automatic test function) and illuminated exit signs at every required exit point. Your sparky will position these according to the NCC’s requirements for your occupancy class and floor area.

The testing obligation is ongoing. Emergency lighting must be function-tested every six months and duration-tested (a full 90-minute discharge test) annually. That’s a legal obligation on the building occupier — skipping it puts you outside compliance and creates a liability problem if there’s ever an evacuation.

If you’re taking on a tenancy where emergency lighting already exists, check that it’s been maintained. Old or failing emergency luminaires are common in older commercial buildings, and you don’t want to inherit a compliance problem from the previous tenant.

Who pays for what — landlord versus tenant

This is one of the messier aspects of commercial fit-outs, and the answer is: read your lease carefully.

The general principle is that the landlord is responsible for the base building’s existing electrical infrastructure — the main switchboard, the incoming supply, the distribution to the tenancy’s meter or isolator. If that infrastructure is inadequate or in poor condition, it’s worth negotiating who funds any upgrade before you sign.

Once you take possession and start fit-out work, anything new you install is your responsibility. That includes all new circuits, your lighting, your power points, your aircon wiring, and your emergency lighting. Your fit-out electrician issues the CoES for that work, and in most commercial leases, you’re also required to reinstate the tenancy to its original condition when you leave — which can mean your electrical work gets removed or disconnected at the end of the lease.

There are variations. Some landlords include a base electrical fitment as part of the lease incentive (particularly in newer buildings or shopping centres with shell-and-core fit-out arrangements). Others provide a “make good” clause that gives you flexibility. None of this is standardised, so knowing exactly what the lease commits you to — before you plan your electrical layout — saves expensive surprises.

Getting the right sparky for a commercial fit-out

Commercial electrical work is a different scope to a residential job. The licensing requirements are the same (a Registered Electrical Contractor, or REC, as registered by Energy Safe Victoria), but the planning, load calculations, and compliance obligations are more complex.

Before you engage anyone, check their REC number on the ESV public register. That search confirms they’re licensed to work in Victoria. For larger fit-outs, ask whether they’ve done commercial tenancy work before and whether they can coordinate with your builder, your equipment suppliers, and the landlord’s base-building electrician where needed.

Yiannis holds REC 28523 and works across the inner north and greater Melbourne on commercial fit-outs including retail, hospitality, and office tenancies. If you’re planning a fit-out in Brunswick, Preston, or anywhere across the region, it’s worth getting the electrical scope sorted early — it affects everything else in the build.

What to do next

Start with your equipment list and floor plan. Know what you’re plugging in, where the aircon is going, and where your refrigeration will sit — that information drives the electrical design, and getting it wrong at planning stage is what creates expensive variations later.

Check what supply your tenancy already has (single-phase or three-phase, and at what capacity), and confirm who is responsible for any upgrade under your lease.

Make sure you understand the emergency lighting and exit sign obligations for your occupancy class before you finalise the fit-out scope. These are not optional extras.

If you’d rather a licensed sparky handle it, give Yiannis a call on 0434 254 474 or send a quick message for a free quote.

Sources

• Energy Safe Victoria — about Certificates of Electrical Safety ↗
• Energy Safe Victoria — public register of electrical licences ↗
• AS/NZS 3000:2018 — Wiring Rules