Teams from SSE’s networks business (SSEN) are continuing to deliver essential services to communities across the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.
Our operational team, registered by the Government as critical workers are on the frontline every day, fixing faults on the power network whilst adapting to new working conditions and government guidelines.
These include a one person, one vehicle rule, which ensures employees can travel safely, avoiding close contact with other people, to undertake the critical works required to keep the power flowing to homes and businesses.
Sean Barrett and Andy Richards are just two of SSEN’s frontline workers.
They are responsible for maintaining and restoring a network powering the homes and businesses of almost 980,000 customers across the Thames Valley, a patch which includes around 8,500 kilometres of cables, 53,000 poles and over 10,000 substations.
Sean said: “While the key part of our jobs – to keep the power flowing to our customers – hasn’t changed, the way we carry out our jobs has. I work as a jointer, so my job is to repair any cable faults that can damage the network and cause power cuts. My colleague, Andy excavates the trench to enable me to access the damaged area and carry out the necessary repair or replacement of the cable – tasks we now carry out in isolation.
“We still work as a team and have a strict one person, one van policy, so we can work safely while respecting social distancing guidelines. All of our shifts and rotas have been reconfigured so we always have the same working partners and by doing this in addition social distancing and wearing the correct PPE, we are reducing the amount of people we come in to contact with and therefor working as safely as possible.
“Every job we do always starts with a risk assessment, but now there are a few more layers of assessment we need to make to keep ourselves and our customers safe.
“I take pride in playing a role in keeping the power flowing for our customers and having a job that really makes a difference, especially when I undertake that job with a trusted colleague like Andy.”