The annual national awards celebrate the unsung heroes of utilities and this year the Carlisle-based engineer Kevin Anderson is in with a chance of winning the Hero Award for his remarkable contribution during the storms which caused the loss of power to 75,000 customers in Cumbria and Lancashire.
Kevin Anderson, who has been an engineer for 15 years, used his experience from the 2005 Carlisle floods to advise the control room of the situation on the ground and made quick and safe decisions to restore power to customers in extremely difficult conditions as quickly as possible.
More than 500 engineers from Electricity North West worked 24 hours a day to repair the damage, 20,000 sandbags were distributed and 22,000 free hot meals were provided.
Kevin Anderson, lead delivery engineer for Electricity North West, said: “This winter was extremely challenging and my colleagues and myself worked in extremely difficult conditions to repair the extensive damage and restore power to customers as quickly and safely as possible.
“It’s great to be recognised in this way and I’m honoured to be shortlisted.”
Electricity North West has also been shortlisted for four other awards, including the Big Bang Award for Innovation for its work around ‘smart’ fuses to repair faults and restore power quicker and the Constellation Awards for Collaborative Work with a Customer Community for its Power Saver Challenge.
Martin Deehan, operations director for Electricity North West, said: “I have never seen so much sustained commitment by a single person in my 35 years in the industry.
“I am extremely proud of Kevin for the valuable role he played to help restore power to customers in Cumbria during an extremely distressing time.”
To find out more about how Electricity North West restored power during Storm Desmond click here and for more information about the Power Saver Challenge watch this quick video.
Winners will be announced at the Utility Week Star Awards on 17 June at the Hilton Manchester, Deansgate.
Shortlisted for:
- Big Bang Award for Innovation - The Fault Support Centre team, Electricity North West / Kelvatek
- Constellation Awards for collaborative work with a customer community - The Power Saver Challenge
- Customer Culture Award - The Communications and Call Centre teams
- Hero Award – Individual - Kevin Anderson
- Hero Award – Team - TVS Supply Chain Solutions in partnership with Electricity North West
