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NEWS
October/November 2013 www.esb.ie/em
NEW NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
» David McDonald, Project Manager at NIE, tells us about the system.
DAVID, CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF?
“I started working for NIE in September 2003 after completing a BEng. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen's University Belfast. It's hard to believe I've been here for 10 years! As part of our graduate training programme I was rotated across most business areas with significant job roles in Asset Management, Network Planning, Stations Delivery and now in our Distribution Service Centre in Craigavon. For the past three years I have been the Project Manager for our Network Management System (NMS) upgrade.
“In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, which with two boys under three years old, keeps my wife and myself on our toes! I'm also actively involved in my local church, play hockey for Ballymena and enjoy playing flute in a number of different musical ensembles.”
WHAT IS THE NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?
“The Network Management System, formerly known as TroubleMAN, is a critical application for the business that I provides three key functions.
“In our control centre, where we operate the distribution network, it is used to record every high-voltage switching operation providing a real-time view of the distribution network. It is also used to manage safety documentation and operational restrictions.
“Within NIE's Fault and Emergency department it is used for the dispatch and management of all faults on the electricity network. It provides updates to various other systems, including customer communications and fault reporting. This is especially invaluable during major weather events when there is damage to the electricity network and the management of faults is moved to our 12 local incident centres across Northern Ireland.”
WHY HAS IT BEEN INTRODUCED?
“TroubleMAN was introduced to NIE in 1998 to enable electronic analysis of faults and an IT platform to record all High Voltage switching on the network. Although TroubleMAN has served us well over the past 15 years there were a number of reasons to upgrade to the latest NMS version. NIE's TroubleMAN application and hardware were reaching the end of their asset lives.
“The new NMS provides a much improved user interface which enables more efficient operation for all users. This latest technology will provide a platform to develop further improvements including smart networks integration, customer fault mapping and reporting. Also in recent years the dynamics of distribution electricity networks have been changing significantly through the impact of increased distributed generation, mainly wind farms. This is having a direct impact on NIE's Distribution Control Centre which will require an integrated, real-time load flow management system to assist with outage planning and network configuration.”
HAVE YOU LEARNT ANYTHING NEW FROM MANAGING THIS PROJECT?
“This project has provided me with a wide range of learning on a weekly basis from the initial internal project approvals to purchasing IT hardware and preparing for go live! I think though if I was to take one thing away from this project it would be the importance of having a good team of people involved both internally and externally. I have been in the fortunate position to have had an experienced, hard-working and enthusiastic team within NIE and from our external contractors. This project has very much been a team effort and I would like to thank all those involved for the help and support over the last three years.”
NIE ‘takes over’ Action Cancer
AS PART OF a Business in the Community challenge, NIE ‘took over’ the Newry Action Cancer store for ‘one day only’ on the September 19th, last.
The 13-strong team collected new stock for the shop and carried out fundraising during the month of September. Altogether, 12 teams from 11 different companies took over Action Cancer stores across Northern Ireland with thousands of pounds raised for the charity.
Sparking engineering talent at NIE
» Two students, Wayne Chang and Ethan McMenemy, spent their summer at NIE getting some hands on experience of engineering projects.
AS PART OF the Nuffield STEM Engineering Bursary, Wayne looked at anti-vandal devices for overhead lines and Ethan created new symbols for electronic network diagrams.
Their placement finished with a presentation of their project findings to a panel of NIE engineers.
Cathal Donnelly and Mark Compton from NIE mentored Wayne and Ethan during their placement and were overwhelmed by their enthusiasm for the projects they were given. Cathal told EM: “We are pleased to be associated with the Nuffield STEM Engineering Bursary that encourages individuals to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. This work experience offers an invaluable opportunity for the students to gain a better understanding of the industry.” Mark added: “The ideas Wayne and Ethan presented to us have certainly given us some potential areas to research more and we hope that this experience has helped inspire their career aspirations”.
Good news!
We were pleased to hear that last year's Nuffield Bursary students, Joe McAleese and Orla Murphy, have both chosen to study Electrical Engineering this year in university.
Electrifying careers advice
A NUMBER of careers advisors from the Department of Employment and Learning have swapped their day jobs for week placements at NIE to get a flavour of the careers within the company. This is part of an initiative to boost the number of students considering careers in power engineering.
During the visit the careers advisors had a whistle stop tour of NIE which included spending some time with the graduates who are working on planning the future of the electricity network, at the apprentices training centres in Ballymena and Campsie and at the Customer Service centre in Craigavon.
Ann Marie, one of the Careers Advisors who visited NIE, found her placement informative and said: “During my week placement I gained a very comprehensive overview of the career opportunities within NIE and a clear insight into the skills shortage currently impacting on the power engineering sector. I feel much better equipped now when interviewing young people to explore and discuss the career opportunities within NIE”.
For more information on career and outreach opportunities, visit www.nie.co.uk
Raymond McMenemy, Training Manager at NIE, welcomed the visit and said: “At NIE we are investing in a number of initiatives such as facilitating these visits, to promote the importance of STEM subjects and engineering as a career. We hope the careers advisors who have visited us so far transfer all the knowledge that they've gained from their work placement when offering future career information”.
BACK TO THE CLASSROOM FOR ONE NIE APPRENTICE
IT HAS OFTEN been said that apprenticeships are great platforms to launch careers and this has never been truer for Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) third year apprentice, Joanna Barclay, who is about to embark on a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Joanna Barclay from Belfast is the first to be accepted onto the Apprentice to Graduate programme, a new annual scheme that NIE is offering its apprentices in conjunction with Queen's University Belfast.
Technical Training Manager, Raymond McMenemy, explains: “At NIE we have always placed a huge importance on apprenticeships and believe it helps develop highly skilled, future employees. We are encountering a shortage of electrical engineers at NIE so the Apprentice to Graduate programme is a great opportunity for us to not only offer our apprentices a route to develop their careers but also help the company fulfil a skills shortage”.
Joanna told EM: “I was interviewed for the Apprenticeship programme back in 2010 and when asked what my future career aspirations were I said that one day I'd like to work as a technician or engineer in the company. When NIE offered the Apprentice to Graduate programme I jumped at the chance to get one step closer to achieving my career ambitions and applied immediately. I know it will be a tough couple of years but I can't wait for the challenge”.
Raymond added: “Apprenticeships really are a great way to progress your career and can provide you with many different career options. Coming from an apprenticeship background and having that understanding of the network will make Joanna an experienced and well-rounded engineer. We wish her all the best with her studies”.
The Apprentice to Graduate programme is open to all current and former NIE apprentices with the required criteria.
