Opening a Cafe or Restaurant in the Inner West? What Your Switchboard Actually Needs to Handle

What does a new cafe or restaurant fitout actually need from the switchboard in Sydney's Inner West? A hospitality fitout is not just a bigger version of an office fitout. The switchboard has to be sized around real kitchen equipment demand (ovens, cooktops, coffee machines, fridges, exhaust and dishwashers running at the same time), it needs the wider RCD coverage that non domestic premises are allowed under AS/NZS 3000, and in an older Inner West shopfront the existing supply is often single phase and undersized for what a commercial kitchen actually draws. Getting this assessed before you sign the lease, not after the fitout starts, is what stops a fitout budget blowing out in week two.

⚡ Quick Answers: Cafe and Restaurant Switchboard Fitouts (Inner West)

• Do I need three phase power for a cafe or small restaurant? Not always. Plenty of small cafes run on single phase, but a genuine commercial kitchen with multiple ovens, a griddle, a glass wash and reach in fridges running together usually needs three phase, or at least a load assessment before you assume single phase will cope.
• Can I use the existing switchboard from the last tenant? Only if it was actually sized for hospitality use and still meets current RCD rules. A lot of Inner West shopfronts have been through several retail to food changeovers and the board was never upgraded for the heavier load.
• Who works out how much power the fitout will actually draw? A Level 2 ASP or your electrician calculates maximum demand from your equipment schedule using AS/NZS 3000's demand tables, not just the total nameplate wattage added up.
• Does a commercial kitchen need different safety switches to a house? Yes. Non domestic RCD coverage under AS/NZS 3000 is narrower than residential coverage, so a switchboard built to the old commercial rules can still be compliant while covering less than you'd expect from a home.
• What if the site is only fed by single phase and I need three phase? That's a network application through Ausgrid or Endeavour Energy depending on which side of the Inner West you're on, and it needs to be started well before your fitout completion date, not the week before opening.
• Is this something my builder can just sort out during the fitout? The physical board and cabling work can run alongside the build, but the electrical assessment and any network application should happen before you commit to a fitout budget and opening date.

1. A hospitality fitout is a different electrical job to a normal shop fitout

A boutique or office tenancy draws power fairly evenly across lighting, computers and small appliances. A cafe or restaurant kitchen draws in short, heavy bursts, ovens, hotplates, a glass washer and an espresso machine can all be running at once during a Saturday morning rush in Newtown or Leichhardt, then sit mostly idle by 3pm. The switchboard has to be sized for that peak, not the average, which is a different calculation to a standard commercial fitout.

2. How the switchboard actually gets sized before the kitchen is finalised

AS/NZS 3000's Appendix C gives two practical ways to size a tenancy before every piece of equipment is locked in. The first estimates demand from floor area using an energy figure per square metre, useful for a quick check before the kitchen layout is final. The second works from the actual equipment schedule, applying assessed demand allowances for cooking appliances rather than adding up full nameplate wattage, plus a diversity factor across the whole switchboard once you know how many circuits are involved. A proper assessment uses both, the floor area method early in planning and the equipment schedule method once the kitchen supplier has confirmed exact appliances.

3. Commercial RCD coverage is narrower than a home's, and that matters

Homeowners are used to every circuit in the house being on a safety switch. Non domestic premises are treated differently under AS/NZS 3000 Clause 2.6.3.2.3.1, which sets out which commercial and industrial circuits actually need RCD protection, and it is a narrower requirement than the residential rule. That does not mean a commercial kitchen is less safe when it is done properly, but it does mean an old board that technically passed inspection for a retail tenancy can be genuinely under protected for a food business, particularly around water heaters, dishwashers and equipment near sinks and wash down areas. This is one of the most common things we find has been missed when a cafe takes over a space that was previously a clothing shop or a nail salon.

4. Single phase versus three phase on an Inner West dining strip

A lot of the Inner West's cafe and restaurant stock sits in narrow shopfronts on strips like King Street, Norton Street and Marrickville Road, buildings that are decades old and were never built with commercial kitchens in mind. Some are already three phase from a previous food tenancy. Others are still single phase because the last business was retail. If your equipment schedule genuinely calls for three phase and the site is single phase, that is a supply upgrade through Ausgrid or Endeavour Energy, not just an internal switchboard swap, and it can take weeks to schedule once the application goes in. If you are not sure which distributor covers your address, check your network area in seconds with our postcode checker. For a genuinely large increase, a new tenancy needing well beyond a standard three phase supply, that moves into Level 3 design territory rather than a standard Level 2 connection.

5. Why this needs to happen before you sign the lease, not after

The single biggest cost blowout we see on hospitality fitouts is a kitchen equipment order placed, a fitout builder booked, and an opening date set, before anyone has confirmed the site can actually carry the load. If a three phase upgrade or a full switchboard replacement turns out to be needed, that is real time and real cost added to a project that may already be running on a fixed opening date tied to a lease. A short electrical assessment against your draft equipment list, done before the lease is signed or at minimum before the kitchen order is placed, is the cheapest insurance available on a hospitality fitout.

6. What a proper commercial fitout switchboard actually includes

Beyond raw capacity, a fitout built properly for a food business generally includes dedicated circuits for major cooking equipment rather than shared general power circuits, correctly rated RCD protection positioned to cover wash areas and equipment near water without triggering nuisance trips on unrelated circuits, a main switch and submain sized with headroom for a future second oven or an extra fridge rather than exactly matched to day one equipment, and clear labelling so a tradesperson or fire inspector can identify circuits quickly. None of this is expensive to get right at fitout stage. All of it is expensive to retrofit once the kitchen is built around a board that was undersized from the start. This is the same reason it is worth checking whether the tenancy has ever changed use before, an old warehouse or light industrial conversion carries its own switchboard traps we cover in our warehouse and loft conversion guide, and a strata owned commercial building has its own approval chain, see our guide on how strata committees plan a main switchboard replacement.

Why it's Level 2 ASP work

Any part of this that touches the point of supply itself, a new or upgraded connection, a change from single phase to three phase, or a new meter for a subdivided tenancy, sits outside standard electrical licensing and needs a Level 2 Accredited Service Provider. Your electrician can still do the internal switchboard and fitout wiring, but the network side of a capacity upgrade has to go through an accredited Level 2 ASP working directly with Ausgrid or Endeavour Energy. If the shopfront itself is fed by a private power pole rather than a standard street connection, which does happen on some of the Inner West's larger corner sites, that adds another layer worth checking against our sister site's private power pole ownership guide before you assume the connection is a standard one.

How High Demand Electrical helps

High Demand Electrical is one of Sydney's most trusted Level 2 ASPs, and we run hospitality fitout electrical work across the Inner West's cafe and restaurant strips as a normal part of the job, not a rare specialty. We assess your equipment schedule against AS/NZS 3000's demand tables before you commit to a kitchen order, handle the Ausgrid or Endeavour Energy application if a supply upgrade is genuinely needed, and build the switchboard with the RCD coverage, dedicated circuits and headroom a working commercial kitchen actually needs. We are a licensed local team, not a call centre, servicing hospitality, retail and office fitouts across the Inner West alongside our wider Sydney coverage, and every quote is based on a real site assessment against your fitout plans, not a generic per square metre estimate.

Cafe and Restaurant Fitout FAQs (Sydney Inner West)

How early should I get an electrical assessment done?

Before you sign the lease if possible, or at the very latest before you place your kitchen equipment order. See our commercial electrical fitout guide for the broader planning sequence.

What happens if the existing switchboard is inadequate but I've already signed the lease?

It is not fatal, it just needs to be budgeted for properly rather than discovered mid fitout. We assess what is there, what the new load actually requires, and give you a real number before the builder starts, see our switchboard upgrade guide for how the assessment and upgrade process works.

Does a small cafe with no cooking, just an espresso machine and a fridge, still need this level of assessment?

Usually a much lighter assessment, but it is still worth confirming the existing circuits can handle a commercial grade espresso machine's startup draw without nuisance tripping shared circuits, which is a common issue in fitouts that reuse an old retail board.

Can new machinery or equipment cause an existing switchboard to start tripping?

Yes, and if that is what you are dealing with on an already fitted out premises rather than a new fitout, see our dedicated guide on why new machinery causes a commercial property to trip.

What if my restaurant or cafe needs a genuinely larger three phase supply, not just a switchboard upgrade?

That is a step beyond a fitout board and into the network capacity itself, see our guide on whether your commercial property needs a larger three phase supply for how that process differs from an internal switchboard swap.

Planning a cafe or restaurant fitout in the Inner West? Get a switchboard assessment quote or call 0402 559 777. Every fitout job needs a site assessment against your actual equipment schedule before we can confirm scope and pricing.