The team who run the East Anglia ONE offshore windfarm will be working hard at its Lowestoft base throughout Christmas so homes have the power they need.
The team are proud to be working to keep the 102 turbines turning and the tens of kilometres of underground and undersea cables carrying green electricity to the National Grid for up to 630,000 homes in peak operation.
When dawn breaks on Christmas Day, Adam Ablitt and Richard Domiczew will already be hard at work at ScottishPower Renewables’ East Anglia ONE base at Lowestoft port where the UK sees the sun rise first.
Their 12-hour Christmas Day shift starts at 6.30am. With 10 other highly-skilled people, they will closely monitor the working of the 102 turbines as the nation lights up Christmas trees, cooks tens of millions of Christmas dinners, charges new gadgets, and settles down for some festive TV viewing.
Richard, Deputy Site Manager, worked in oil and gas, before he made the move to the fast-growing renewables industry 13 years ago. No stranger to working at Christmas, he said: “Working at Christmas is just part and parcel of the job. It’s nice to know that we are doing our bit to help power people’s festive celebrations and providing clean energy into the grid.”
Richard and the team will be monitoring each of the 167- metre high turbines to ensure they’re operating efficiently and without faults. Any potential concerns, faults or alarms in the system are flagged up on the network of screens in the control room.
Adam, Balance of Plant Technician, is currently upskilling to become responsible for the safety of the high voltage systems on the windfarm’s transmission cables.
Adam said: “In terms of what we do, Christmas Day will be like any other, apart from the fact we won’t have any offshore work planned. A standby team will be on hand if any problems do arise, but hopefully that won’t happen – although it’s not unheard of.
“We’ve got people in the team who previously had to resort to emergency instant noodles for their Christmas dinner, and I once had a full roast dinner on Christmas Day on a boat in the middle of North Sea during the construction of East Anglia ONE!”
Richard and Adam are proud to be part of the ScottishPower Renewables team keeping the lights on over the festive season and wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas.