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7
NEWS
August/September 2012 www.esb.ie/em
Powerful scholarship for engineering students
TWO TOP ELECTRICAL engineering students have been awarded a scholarship with NIE worth £24,000 each.
Daniel Robinson and Mark Lindsay are the first students to benefit from the NIE Electrical Engineering Scholarship Programme, which is being run in conjunction with Queen’s University Belfast.
NIE currently works with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to offer students the Power Academy scholarship and due to the success of this scholarship decided to expand it further by creating the NIE Electrical Engineering Scholarship Programme.
The scholarship is open to first-year electrical engineering students and includes an annual bursary and a book allowance every year and payment towards university fees. It also includes paid summer placements and a one year’s training experience with NIE.
Gordon Parkes, NIE Human Resources Director, said, “I’d like to congratulate Daniel and Mark in achieving the NIE Scholarship, particularly as they came through a thorough selection process. The NIE Scholarship programme provides these students with excellent experience working on real engineering projects as they study for their degree. NIE has recognised that in order to attract the best possible engineers we need to be working closely with our local universities in order to generate interest and develop graduates at an early point in their career”.
Daniel and Mark, who received the Scholarship, are delighted to have gotten through the process. Daniel said, “I am really pleased to be given this opportunity with NIE. This is a great chance to develop a first hand understanding of the electricity industry.” Mark added: “I’m looking forward to starting my training experience at NIE and developing my skills as an engineer.”
NIE promotes ‘FishSafe’ this summer
With the fishing season well underway and the summer holidays now upon us, Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) has launched its annual FishSafe campaign. The campaign aims to remind anglers to look up and look out for overhead electricity equipment before they start fishing.
EVERY YEAR ANGLERS are injured or killed because they accidentally come into contact with overhead electricity lines and NIE wants every angler to cast with care.
Hal Steele, NIE Safety Engineer, says anglers can keep themselves safe by following a few simple safety precautions. “Everyone should look up and look out for overhead lines before assembling fishing rods and fish at least 30 metres away from electricity equipment. Electricity can jump gaps and even bringing a fishing rod close to overhead lines can be very dangerous. Many modern fishing rods contain carbon fibre, which conducts electricity. Contact or near contact with overhead power lines can lead to burns or even fatal injuries.
“We have distributed Fishing Safety leaflets to all angling clubs and tackle shops across Northern Ireland and hope that our awareness campaign will encourage all anglers, young and old, to think about safety before they fish.”
NIE is also working with local anglers to promote the campaign. Former Captain of the Irish Fly Fishing Team, Patrick Carson, welcomes NIE’s campaign. Patrick says: “All it takes is one lapse of concentration and you could put yourself at great risk. Any campaign to remind anglers to take note of their surroundings before piecing together their fishing rods and casting is to be welcomed. If your fishing line becomes entangled in overhead lines, drop your fishing rod immediately, keep others away and contact NIE on 08457 643 643.” NIE also wants to encourage landowners who make fishing waters available to erect clear safety signs. These signs are available free of charge in limited numbers by contacting NIE Safety on 028 9066 1100.
For more information on safety around electricity equipment check out www.nie.co.uk.
Inspiring innovation from a young age
NIE WAS HEAVILY involved in this year’s Young Innovators event took place at the Odyssey in Belfast on Tuesday, 19 June. The company had 10 engineers acting as mentors for local primary and secondary schools in the Research and Development project (R&D project) and Smart Energy Project.
The brief for the R&D project asked students from Rathmore Grammar School Belfast and Methodist College Belfast to design a device for NIE engineers to check oil levels at substations. The students were invited to present their solutions to a panel of NIE engineers who were very impressed by the teams’ presentation skills and solutions. Methodist College had developed a periscope webcam device and Rathmore Grammar School researched an oil sensor product.
NIE engineers will now consider the ideas over the coming months to see if they can be developed further and used at substations.
Crushing metal theft
NIE HAS JOINED FORCES with other utilities, including BT, NI Water (NIW) and Translink, to tackle the increasing problem of metal theft in Northern Ireland.
The theft of fibre optic cables has cut telecommunications and electricity supplies to local communities and the theft of manhole covers has posed a danger to the general public.
The group of companies, known as The Northern Ireland Utilities Working Group, recently spoke to the Environment Committee asking it to support a tightening of legislation on scrap metal dealers.
Sam Gibson, Asset Knowledge Manager at NIE says, “The rising number of incidents of metal theft shows that there is a market for illegally obtained metal and we would like to see it closed down. Particularly as metal thieves are damaging equipment and in some cases leaving areas unsafe for the general public.
“We believe that tighter licensing of scrap metal dealers alongside more powers to police what is being sold to scrap dealers would help to curb this problem. Northern Ireland has a clear legislative deficit in this area at present and we would like to see this change, particularly as tighter legislation is being developed in both Great Britain and Republic of Ireland.”
The utilities recently teamed up with the independent charity Crimestoppers on its ‘Crush Metal Theft’ campaign to raise awareness of the issue to the general public.
For more information, visit www.nie.co.uk or www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
HIGH FLYING VOLT
AS PART OF ITS Environment Plan NIE has been supporting the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) red kite recovery project. The project has successfully introduced the red kite, an indigenous bird of prey, back to Northern Ireland.
NIE has sponsored this initiative and adopted a red kite, which was aptly named ‘Volt’.
Volt was last spotted in Avoca, County Wicklow, on Saturday, 19 May. The RSPB reported that Volt had found love with a southern born male red kite but unfortunately the romance has ended with unsuccessful breeding.
Make sure you keep an eye out for Volt on your travels and report any sightings to Adam McClure the RSPB Red Kite Officer, adam.mcclure@rspb.org.uk.
