Utility Week’s Stars Awards 2015 take place on 12 June in Manchester. Here we present the shortlist of outstanding achievers and dedicated professionals receiving recognition.

Apprentice of the Year

Ben Cross is described as one of “the most exceptional” apprentices SGN has had since its scheme was put in place in 2008. His nomination describes him as “a joy to be around” and he was winner of the company’s internal Apprentice of the Year award in 2014.

UK Power Networks overhead linesman Jack Matthews excelled in design and technology at school and was chosen from hundreds of applicants for a place on the company’s Foundation Apprenticeship scheme. Kevin Bilverstone, lead instructor overhead lines, Risby Training Centre, says: “From day one Jack has always shown a very good attitude and willingness to learn. His standard of work on courses is first class and he very rarely makes a mistake.”

The Above and Beyond Award – Individual

Gary Duffus is a repair team leader at SGN’s London Depot. His nomination praises his all-weather, all year round dedication and says he “leads from the front in attitude, endeavour and loyalty”.

Lisa Butcher is customer liaison officer for several major schemes being undertaken by the H5O Alliance on behalf of South West Water. Overcoming challenges to reduce customer disruption, Lisa’s sensitive and dedicated approach to stakeholder engagement has won accolades from local communities.

Gareth Davies is a project co-ordinator at the SP Energy Networks Wrexham office. In December 2014, Gareth discovered a vulnerable elderly woman who had been living in very difficult conditions and without electricity or water supply for two years. His tireless work to restore power and water to her house and ensure she is cared for by social services is testament to the “generosity of spirit” and good humour which inspire his team to put customers at the forefront of all they do.

The bright and helpful character of Morrison Utility Services’ Scott Finlay has won the hearts of customers on project sites. One resident commented: “They moved the bus stop and made a temporary one further up the road, which some people found hard to get to as there are a lot of elderly people on the estate. Scott went out his way to pick those elderly people up and personally drop them at the new temporary bus stop so they could catch a bus”. (Scott has also been shortlisted for the Customer Service Award)

The Above and Beyond Award – Team

South West Water Delivery Team H5O, Ivybridge Bathing Waters scheme: This project saw a 1,500m3 storm storage tank installed at Ivybridge sewage treatment works. Starting consultation earlier than required and making goodwill gestures to appease community concerns and improve local facilities, the team turned what could have been a difficult customer relations project into a success. The hard work also had wider benefits thanks to the team’s engagement with local schools, educating children about the water sector.

South West Water Delivery Team H5O, Hobleton Bathing Waters scheme. Located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, this project was challenging from the outset. But, due to its efforts to reduce the impact of road disruption and care for valued local heritage, the project team is now held up as an exemplar of South West Water’s “be a good neighbour” engagement tenet.

Levern Energy Services’ Overhead Lines Team. In January this year the team helped SSE restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers during extreme weather. Less than eight hours after SSE’s request for assistance was received, more than 150 linesmen from the northwest and southwest of England were mobilised in Scotland. The team worked day and night in sub-zero temperatures and gale force winds for more than ten days, far from their homes and families. They helped SSE restore power to 120,000 customers as soon as possible, an effort which won praise from the Scottish government.

Northern Powergrid’s Mutual Aid Team. Another power restoration success story, the Mutual Aid team also did a fantastic job supporting industry colleges in the north of Scotland in their effort to reconnect power to 120,000 customers this year. The team was directly responsible for restoring power to many locations, including Tarbat Ness Lighthouse on the remote east coast of Scotland.

Openreach BT BDUK Staffordshire. This team has pioneered a collaborative working approach to proactively manage the activities on the network and reduce wastage. Its achievements will pave the way for new ways of thinking about long-term challenges and multi-stakeholder requirements.

The Hero Award

The Npower Hope Team. Outside of their daily jobs, members of this team raise money and awareness for local and national charities. Despite demanding daily jobs as call centre managers and engineers, they give up their own time to help those most in need.

Northumbrian WaterAid Committee. This group of 35 employees is drawn from all levels at Northumbrian Water. The team has poured its heart and soul into supporting WaterAid, says the entry, its members “exude passion” for the cause and seek every opportunity to encourage participation from colleagues, partners and contractors.

Larry Spiers, Streamclean co-ordinator, Wessex Water. In December last year, Larry performed a lifesaving act of heroism by performing CPR on a man who found collapsed on the pavement while on his way home from work. The man stopped breathing in Larry’s presence and his confident response undoubtedly saved the man’s life.

Customer Service Award

Universal Metering Programme Team, Southern Water. This team, including staff from Groundwork South and IncomeMAX, recently completed a five-year programme to install water meters across Kent, Sussex and Surrey, supporting efficiency and accurate billing and assisting vulnerable customers. The team has shown a huge community engagement effort, delivering 244 mobile exhibitions and supporting daily customer information points in each county. Over 345 stakeholder engagement activities have taken place, of which 74 were schools and 27 community workshops.

Good Energy’s Customer Care Team. This team has delivered industry-leading customer service year on year. In recent months it topped a Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert poll for customer service and came second in the 2015 Which? energy company customer satisfaction survey – scoring an impressive 82 per cent. Good energy has ranked highly in this prestigious survey every year since 2012. Strikingly, the customer care team’s exemplary performance has taken place in the midst of significant growth in customer numbers.

UK Power Networks’ Website and Social Media Team. This multi-award winning team has a consistent track record of excellent online customer service. Providing 24-hour customer support, the team’s 15 members receive showers of compliments from customers on their effective help, often given during trying times.

Health and Safety Award

Andy Woolston, Tony Thorning and Kevin Baker, working for H5O on behalf of South West Water. The trio have developed a highly effective presentation to demonstrate the risk of low-voltage cables. It has been adopted by all members of the H5O alliance and sent to the Utility Strike Avoidance Group, for potential adoption by the wider industry.

In 2011, British Gas acquired PH Jones, a leading UK energy services provider to help it gain a bigger share of the social housing market. Resonating with Centrica’s commitment to health and safety, the PH Jones HSE team has a strong structure for occupational support and wellbeing, including its Happy, Healthy Here programme, run by qualified psychologists and health professionals.

UK Power Networks’ compliance manager Jeremy Wright and project manager Russell Barker have sourced ideas and products from around the world to develop a toolset and strategy to tackle the industry-wide problem of underground cables faulting within cable pits. UK Power Networks’ Cable Pit Mitigation Strategy Proj  ect Team is also shortlisted for the Team of the Year Award – Operational

The Morrison Utility Services Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Team enjoyed a landmark year in 2014 with a fifth award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2014. A key focus for the team last year was to establish a robust approach to avoiding utility damage and cable strikes during streetworks. The team has also continued to enhance its long-running commitment to schools engagement, educating young people about the dangers of construction sites.

Innovator Award

Innovation delivery manager David McLeod is a pivotal member of SGN’s multi-award winning, 16-strong Innovation & New Technology team. He joined the company as a graduate in 2009 and rose to this senior position in just three years. He often deputises for the head of department and his talent has been recognised in his appointment as chairman of the Gas Innovation Governance Group.

SGN business development manager Alan Midwinter has worked at the gas network since 1980 when he joined as an apprentice. He launched SGN’s biomethane business almost single-handedly and is a self-taught enthusiast on the topic. Studying masses of data, he has become a leading UK expert in biogas production and particularly biomethane clean-up plants.

Scottish Power Energy Retail’s Investigation HAN Technologies project will prove invaluable in the forthcoming national smart meter rollout. The project encompassed a comprehensive evaluation of individual propagation characteristics and capabilities of home area network connectivity solutions and the development of a bespoke 868MHz Rangefinder Device, or “sniffer”, which will enable Scottish Power to understand which available HAN solution will work best for each customer’s property type.

Clancy Plant Hire’s fusion manager, Steve Davies, is always challenging the norm. In 2011, he designed an advanced fusion jointing system which has significantly increased the safety and integrity of underground pipes. His early system received a National Joint Utilities Group High Quality award, and a Pipeline Industries Guild Utility Pipeline Technology award but he has gone on to develop further iterations in collaboration with equipment manufacturers.

Long Service Award

Ray Morris has completed a staggering 50 years’ service in the electricity industry. Currently working as a maintenance engineer in the South East, he has wide experience in many disciplines. His career has spanned maintenance, overhead lines and construction, new services and project work.

Howard Bruce is SGN’s apprenticeship scheme manager. He joined SGN in 1976 as a distribution assistant and served as a team manager for 17 until 2008. Since 2008 he has been responsible for the company’s whole apprenticeship programme across all functions.

Linda Maflin is Kent team leader in South East Water’s operational call centre. She joined the company in 1967 as an office junior in the billing department at Herne Bay. From her first day, she proved an enthusiastic worker. Her nomination says she “is always first to the wicket, taking personal responsibility for solving whatever problem is reported to her – and she doesn’t let go until everyone is happy”.

Yorkshire Water implementation team leader Judith Carr joined in 1979 as a revenue officer. She worked her way through a range of management and business analyst roles before moving to Loop Customer Management, the provider of customer services for Yorkshire Water, in 2000. She gained her current role in 2003 and is responsible for the delivery of large-scale change programmes. She plans to retire in October after the successful implementation of a new telephony system.

Paul Fletcher was a senior metering expert at RWE Npower. He retired in March having worked in the utilities industry, man and boy, for 48 years. He trained as an apprentice and in his final role he led the development and delivery of new smart metering business processes.  

Team of the Year – Customer Facing

Npower Green Deal and Obligations Customer Service Team. This rapidly growing team takes customers through a journey to install energy efficiency measures, ultimately making their homes warmer. The process is complex and highly regulated but despite this, the team has delivered an outstanding net promoter score of 75 per cent and customer service results of 97 per cent.

SGN External Communications Team. All members of this dedicated team are easily capable of representing the company on television or radio, an important asset to gas networks, which need strong representation in emergency situations. The team showed exemplary teamwork in providing comprehensive frontline customer service in Canford Heath, Poole, last September when 80,000 litres of water knocked off supplies to 650 customers.

The Npower Health Through Warmth (HTW) Team. HTW is a unique, voluntary community initiative available across England and Wales which works with National Energy Action (NEA) and the NHS to improve levels of warmth, comfort and quality of life for vulnerable homeowners with long-term illnesses. HTW is run by a dedicated, solution-focused team, managing a fixed Npower budget, and they are committed to external fundraising, ensuring no-one eligible for support is turned away.

Yorkshire Water, Morrison Utilities, Pennine Housing. These companies have come together to deliver a successful community scheme, re-energising a housing estate with fresh infrastructure and facilities. The companies collaborated to manage key stakeholders and present an affordable plan to residents. The project demonstrated striking momentum and customer buy-in.

Team of the Year – Operational

Working in collaboration with Plymouth City Council and the Environment Agency, the Southwest Water Delivery Team (H5O) designed a solution to alleviate flooding in the village of Colebrook. This scheme was extremely challenging at times, and the ways in which the team dealt with problems was, says the entry, nothing short of remarkable.

Wessex Water’s Bristol sewage treatment works (STW) operational team is the driving force behind GENeco, Wessex Water’s unregulated, sustainability-focused subsidiary. This outstanding team supports wastewater treatment for around one million people and has established dynamic business areas to allow for a range of activities, including gas to grid plant, anaerobic digestion and commercial waste treatment.

The UK Power Networks Scouts Availability Management team has developed a system that promises to overhaul the way the company works during a major storm, dramatically improving restoration times for potentially tens of thousands of customers. The system meets a new company target to identify all network damage within 24 hours of a major storm.

Northumbrian Water’s Trunk Mains Cleaning Project team has established an excellent reputation within planning, communication and implementation for its strategic programme of trunk mains cleaning. The team has exceeded regulatory targets and reset expectations for stakeholder engagement and collaboration.  

Team of the Year – Back Office

UK Power Network’s Organisation Development and Employee Engagement and Communication teams work collaboratively to create an environment in which employees can optimise their performance and deliver UKPN’s strategy. In 2014, the team implemented schemes to significantly increase employee engagement, resulting in UKPN being listed in The Sunday Times 25 list of the Best Big Companies to work for. It was the only distribution network operator listed.

The RWE Npower Work Planning team in Leeds manages the company’s field engineers for maximum efficiency and customer service. The team has achieved significant improvements in job booking, increasing success rates by 40 per cent and offering greater flexibility to customers to pick times for appointments. The team’s “scientific approach” to improvement has been supported with strengthened communication and sensitivity for front line team needs.

Morrison Utility Services (MUS) Business Process and Systems team works nationwide to identify process improvement opportunities and develop MUS’s IT systems. Recently the team has focused on improving mobile working capability, with major improvements achieved in intelligent work scheduling and routing, especially for complex highway reinstatement processes. The team has received accolades for its application of cloud computing technologies in this field.