Olympian effort

Away from the dazzle of the lights and the cameras, UKPN staff were working to make the Olympics a success. Kathy Oxtoby talks to four members of team UKPN, the company named Utility of the Year 2012 at Utility Week's Industry Achievement Awards

Brian Stratton, head of London 2012 for UKPN, led the seven-year project to build and run the electricity network that supplied the Olympic Games.

From July 2005 until the games ended, Brian Stratton was charged with looking after the design and construction of the network associated with all the Olympic venues across London, and for the operational planning of the wider London network associated with the event.

Looking back on his experiences during that momentous time, he compares them to what athletes must go through when preparing to take part in a sporting event.

“Like an athlete, you have to plan for that one moment, which means ensuring the network – and your team – are in peak condition”, Stratton says.

The period during the build-up to the games was “nerve-racking”, Stratton says. And the stress was ratcheted up when just 23 hours before the opening ceremony, security services informed them that there was a “credible threat” that someone was intent on disrupting the power that night.

Despite the severe implications of this warning, Stratton says there was “no sense of panic among the UKPN team”. “We’d already prepared for a cyber attack and had safeguards in place to ensure our control system couldn’t be penetrated, such as putting extra staff in place in critical substations and checking every piece of equipment to identify any possible abnormalities – and our plans worked.”

That intense period “was probably the worst time in my career, but what followed was the best”, he says. “An hour before the opening ceremony, I sat in the aquatic stadium and reflected upon the seven years build-up to the games and what we’d achieved.” He then took his seat in the stadium to enjoy the spectacle.

Now Stratton and some of his staff are working with organisers of the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, to capture some of the lessons learned from London. He says this is also helping him to deal with a “sense of bereavement” now the games are over, and to look forward to new challenges. By sharing their unique experiences, Stratton says he and UKPN employees have the chance to reflect on how much they have achieved. “By the end of this wonderful experience, we felt we’d won gold,” he says.

Steve Pickering, a fitter from Bedford, was given the chance by UKPN to work at the Olympic Park during the games.

Steve Pickering has worked in the electricity sector for 30 years and is currently an electrical fitter for UKPN, dealing with high-voltage switch gear. Pickering also has a passion for sport, particularly athletics, and during his school days competed for his school and his county. “When UKPN’s HR department dropped a letter through my door to see if I would like to be part of its Olympic team to help look after its electrical network, I was up for the challenge,” he says .

Recognising his experience, UKPN enlisted him to work at the Olympic Park as a multi-skilled craftsman. This involved him effectively moving out from the family home from mid-July to September (he was also required to work during the Paralympics) to live in accommodation organised by UKPN.

While Pickering was “naturally a bit apprehensive about working away from home with people I’d never met before”, he says he had a “wonderful” experience. “I met some great people and made a lot of good friends from all over the company,” he says.

As well as working shifts, he was always on-call for emergencies. This included the day a lorry driver reversed into one of the many street light columns around the Olympic park and “knocked it flying”. “It was one of those situations you couldn’t anticipate, but those of us who were there made head office aware, then we all mucked in to ensure everyone was safe and to put things right,” he recalls.

Being with his family during a day out at the Paralympics was a high point of his experience of the games – and the most emotional, he says. “We watched blind athletes doing the long jump event, which was inspiring.”

While “feeling a bit deflated” after his Olympic experience, Pickering has been reliving those moments with his family, showing them pictures not only of the games, but the work he and others did to help make them happen, “which reminds me of what a fantastic experience I’ve had”.

David Francis started as a graduate apprentice at UKPN in 2011 and is now a field engineer with the company. Last March he was invited to join the organisation’s Olympic Readiness team.

Having joined UKPN’s graduate scheme in 2011, David Francis felt it was a “brilliant opportunity” to be part of the organisation’s Olympic Readiness team when he finished his training. “My specific role was to assist the delivery and management of a number of different workstreams, such as putting in place lockdowns of various substations, and helping to carry out testing on the network at the Olympic Park,” he says.

Francis says his toughest challenge was to “quickly get up to speed with the running of the project”. “It was a steep learning curve, because other staff had been involved with the Olympics years before me,” he says.

For Francis, one of the most memorable aspects of the games was the “sense of pride you felt as you walked through the Olympic Park every day”. “The atmosphere was amazing, the weather was great, and everyone was smiling,” he recalls.

While the work was hard, he says the experience wasn’t stressful. “I was happy to stay a bit longer to finish what needed to be done, because this was a once-in-a-lifetime project.”

Francis, who worked during the night of the opening ceremony, says the whole thing “was a bit surreal”. “There was all the build-up to it, all the years of hard work, and then you were there – it was really happening – but it was great to be a part of it,” he says.

Now working as a field engineer in London, Francis says the experience has enhanced his knowledge of how electrical networks operate, the policies and procedures involved, and the maintenance required to ensure the supply of power to customers runs efficiently. On a personal level, he appreciates the “fantastic opportunity” he was given to get involved in the games. “I was so happy to get that phone call that told me I would be a part of the Olympics.”

Customer relationship manager Frances Powell was so determined to be a part of the Olympics that she spent time apart from her family during the summer to help make the games a success.

Frances Powell usually works for UKPN’s Connections team, acting as a point of contact for major customers. But she was also keen to use her skills to make the lives of UKPN staff working at the games as easy as possible. “I wanted to get involved in the Olympics because I’ve always been good at communicating with, and helping people. Having worked in the utilities sector since I was 17, I understand what support staff need. I also felt it was a chance to do something useful for our country that I didn’t want to miss,” she says.

As a business support manager working on the Olympic Park site, Powell was required to live away from her family during the games to take care of any day-to-day issues UKPN staff and its contractors might face, from sorting out their accommodation to ensuring they had travel cards, “and being there to take their worries away”, says Powell. During that time, Powell was one of a team of five from UKPN who supported up to 300 staff, looking after their needs and working ten-hours shifts, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Although working from a portable cabin on the main Olympic site near the aquatic centre, Powell was close enough to the public area “to hear the roar of the crowds and feel the atmosphere on the park”, and also had a photograph taken of her standing under the Olympic flame “for my grandchildren”.

While she knew that being apart from her family, which includes four children and six grand children, for nearly three months would be hard, she felt supported by other team members. “I had my sixtieth birthday while I was away and was due to work a night shift. My colleagues not only covered that shift, but brought cakes and balloons to celebrate my birthday,” Powell recalls.

She says the experience of working during the Olympics has been valuable, both on a personal and professional level. Feedback from staff she supported, such as “chocolates to say thank you for always smiling and looking after us so well”, enriched her experience of the games. After the Olympics, she feels she will “look at work issues more calmly, and won’t be shy of taking on a new challenge. And when I’m older this will be one of my best memories”.

Kathy Oxtoby is a freelance journalist

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 11th January 2013.

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