Page 5 - October 2019

features

12 Demanding safety always
Rob Long, Director of Operations
at Wales & West Utilities, is
responsible for 1,000 colleagues
who deliver the gas emergency
service, repair and maintain the gas
network, and deliver the network’s
replacement programme. Here he
talks about the central role health,
safety and wellbeing plays in a gas
network’s operations

16 tackling a Public enemy
Every year, scores of tradespeople
die as a direct consequence of
coming in contact with what HSE has
called ‘the hidden killer’: asbestos.
Many of these are gas engineers,
who risk frequent exposure to
asbestos fibres while working on
older properties and appliances.
Abigail Morrison, Senior Associate at
JMW Solicitors, lays out the dangers
of asbestos in the workplace and
what you can do to mitigate them
20 Setting the priorities
IGEM joins forces with the rest of
the engineering profession to call
for action to secure the UK’s future
economy and society
24 Making hydrogen happen
Earlier this year, the UK government
committed to reach net zero carbon
emissions by 2050 through the
amended 2008 Climate Change Act
(CCA). Professor Joe Howe, Chair
of the North West Hydrogen Alliance
(NWHA) and Executive Director
of the Thornton Energy Institute, 20
and Dr Tony Smith, from Peel
Environmental and a member of the
NWHA, report on how hydrogen is
a vital part of the solution

28 When the lights go out
On a Friday afternoon in August,
large parts of the UK experienced
the biggest power outage in a
decade, leaving thousands of people
stranded on trains for up to nine 12 24
hours and cutting electricity to
almost one million users in England
and Wales. Paul Verrill, Director of
EnAppSys, looks at why it happened
and why these kinds of events could
become more common as we push
to decarbonise the energy system

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