The overhead line engineer Neil Diggins needs a head for heights to maintain power cables at nearly 200m above ground level. Matt Keating discovers how he handles the dangerNeil Diggins refers, frequently, to his job as “big boys’ stuff”. The 53-year-old is a senior overhead line engineer and he covers Yorkshire for National Grid, the company that owns and maintains Britain’s electricity transmission infrastructure. Diggins deals in up to 400,000V – “If you get electrocuted at that voltage you won’t be around to talk about it” – and scales great heights: some of the pylons along the Thames estuary peak at 192m. He is also one of only a handful of people in the UK qualified to work on live power lines while suspended in a basket, 20m below a helicopter.”When I became involved in live wire repair, it was suggested that we should warn our mortgage providers,” recalls Diggins, who used to head the national unit. Live wire repairs are rare, maybe once a year, and necessary only when the “security” of Britain’s power supply would be compromised by switching off part of the overhead network. Continue reading…
Source : theguardian.com
Read more…A working life: The overhead line engineer
