The Essential Energy overhead program was a series of projects compiled into various work packages by geographical location, for efficient works delivery in regional NSW. Various regional locations required the workforce to be mobile, flexible and versatile to deliver a safe and dependable product for Essential Energy.
CORE REQUIREMENTS
- Mobilise per work package (Murwillumbah, Forster/Taree, Nambucca etc)
- Replacement of poles and installation of new poles
- Augmentation and replacement of HV overhead conductor
- Augmentation and replacement of LV overhead conductor
- Replacement of associated service mains
- Replacement and/or installation of hardware such as links, switches and pole transformers
- Replacement of various cross arm configurations
- Outage management, stakeholder management
RESULTS
- Assembled a team of up to 30 workers in a short space of time to fulfil delivery commitment, to the highest levels of safety, quality and delivery expectation
- Developed the team’s skill, attitude and ability to become a dependable and lean delivery team
- Successful delivery of over 140 outages in a calendar year (some very large scope, complex overhead outages in extreme environments)
- Replaced over 100,000 km’s of conductor and 1,100 poles
- All terrain access for people & plant, some in subtropical, mountainous environments
- Exceptional management of land owners to gain trust to access poles. Went above and beyond to look after the communities affected by works
- Mastered a process of works preparation to de-risk outage scope. Led to the ability to deliver extremely large outage scopes, reducing the number of outages for the local communities
CHALLENGES
- Mobilising a highly skilled workforce in remote areas of NSW
- Workers on LAFHA (worker fatigue, rotation and travel management)
- Access to poles (swamps, mountainous access, access after heavy tropical rains etc)
- Moving heavy plant in difficult terrain
- Delivering large scale outages in tight timeframes
- Inventory management of critical items
- Peak resourcing without incurring team risk