ESB represented at International Live Working Conference

The 8th international Conference on Live Maintenance (ICOLIM) was held recently in Prague. 500 delegates from around the world attended the Conference, where 65 Technical Papers were presented over 2 days and Live Work Demonstrations organised on the 3rd Day.

The Conference was organised by the Live Working Association, a European-based organisation dedicated to the promotion of live working and the maintenance of the highest standards in the activity. Ireland, Poland, and Croatia were admitted as members of the Association at the opening of the Conference. ESB Networks Live Working Engineer Eamon O'Flynn is the Irish representative in LWA.

Given ESB Networks commitment to the use of live working methods in reducing planned outages and thereby improving customer service, it was appropriate that a Paper be presented by ESB at the Conference – the first such Paper at a Live Working Conference.

Eamon O'Flynn, ESB Networks, and Maurice O'Connell, ESB International delivered the Paper. Also in attendance was Fintan Hennessy, Live Work Training Officer at the Training Centre, Portlaoise.

ESB's Paper entitled "Live Working and Major Network Refurbishment in ESB Networks," describes the spectacular growth of the Irish Economy and how this created the need to invest in the renewal of our electricity infrastructure, while at the same time responding to unprecedented levels of applications for new customer connections.

Internal reorganisation within ESB Networks, together with the introduction of contractors, were required in order to deliver on the required work programmes.

While this impacted significantly on our HV and MV live working resources during the period 2001-2005, remedial actions were taken in order to maintain both our live working skill-base, and compliance with the highest safety standards.

These actions have resulted in the retention of our live working capability, and have facilitated expansion, thus enabling ESB Networks to deliver on the planned outage targets set by the Energy Regulator going forward. Meeting these targets avoids costly financial penalties imposed by the Regulator – out-performing these targets will deliver significant revenue gains to ESB Networks.