Yesterday I was helping a friend to get a faulty cut out ( main incoming supply fuses ) replaced by the DNO.
It was reported to the DNO that the cut out had failed at 0600hrs. They said they had a target response time of three hours.
The first to arrive came on his own at 0950. He said that he could not replace it because they required two people to do a live replacement.
The next two arrived at 1300 and had a look and said they would need a digging team to expose the incoming cable at the front where they would cut the live conductor to enable them to replace the cut out.
The digging team, who were two subbies, arrived at 1600 and hung around for a while whilst the previous two used a CAT to identify the cable route. But there seemed little communication between all four. The subbies went for a walk for 25 minutes.
At 1700 all four drove off without explaining why or what was going to happen next to restore the supply.
Shortly afterwards their office contacted the Owner and said they could not do the replacement because they had seen some mouse droppings in the meter cupboard. The Owner replied to them shortly afterwards and said that any mouse droppings had just been vacuumed up. The Manager said she would get the supply restored that same evening.
Surprisingly, a further two turned up at 2215 and proceeded to do a live replacement of the cut out and finished at 0030.
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Now I have to say that I was amazed at the total lack of organisation with 2/4 people hanging around from 1300 with no obvious intention of actually getting anything done. Quite apart from the 1300 people saying it would need isolating outside when the first and last said it could be changed live as long as two people were present.
So, DNO staff, is the supply industry really all so inefficient with no obvious intention to repair faults quickly for the users and financially wasting a lot of staff costs?
Certainly, when I worked for the BBC engineering, anyone managing a situation like that would have had a minimum of a formal disciplinary interview which would be recorded in their staff file.
It was reported to the DNO that the cut out had failed at 0600hrs. They said they had a target response time of three hours.
The first to arrive came on his own at 0950. He said that he could not replace it because they required two people to do a live replacement.
The next two arrived at 1300 and had a look and said they would need a digging team to expose the incoming cable at the front where they would cut the live conductor to enable them to replace the cut out.
The digging team, who were two subbies, arrived at 1600 and hung around for a while whilst the previous two used a CAT to identify the cable route. But there seemed little communication between all four. The subbies went for a walk for 25 minutes.
At 1700 all four drove off without explaining why or what was going to happen next to restore the supply.
Shortly afterwards their office contacted the Owner and said they could not do the replacement because they had seen some mouse droppings in the meter cupboard. The Owner replied to them shortly afterwards and said that any mouse droppings had just been vacuumed up. The Manager said she would get the supply restored that same evening.
Surprisingly, a further two turned up at 2215 and proceeded to do a live replacement of the cut out and finished at 0030.
XXXXXXXXXX
Now I have to say that I was amazed at the total lack of organisation with 2/4 people hanging around from 1300 with no obvious intention of actually getting anything done. Quite apart from the 1300 people saying it would need isolating outside when the first and last said it could be changed live as long as two people were present.
So, DNO staff, is the supply industry really all so inefficient with no obvious intention to repair faults quickly for the users and financially wasting a lot of staff costs?
Certainly, when I worked for the BBC engineering, anyone managing a situation like that would have had a minimum of a formal disciplinary interview which would be recorded in their staff file.
