Severn Trent is one of the largest of the regulated water and sewerage companies in the UK, serving around 4.5m homes and businesses. It has a large number of property assets, including large sewage treatment plants, distribution booster stations, reservoirs, water towers, electrical feeders and administrative buildings. Within these facilities Severn Trent operate both process equipment, as well as domestic services infrastructure, such as small power.
The historic domestic services infrastructures throughout the estate was identified as requiring upgrades to address the deterioration of the electrical systems, in order to comply with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and The Electricity at Work Regulations (EAWR) 1989. As well as this legislation placing legal duties on employers to ensure all reasonable and practicable steps to prevent danger from electrical systems are taken to avoid risks to people, wider issues include the reduction of risk from electrical faults electrics causing workplace fires, the impact of which could have serious implications for the utilities provider and their customers.
Faithful+Gould have assisted Severn Trent in achieving electrical compliance for the historic infrastructure through:
- The management of health and safety for the fixed wire testing and remedial programme;
- Supporting Severn Trent in their duties as client under the CDM regulations for all remedial works;
- Working with the Severn Trent compliance team to improve the business culture around CDM compliance;
- Monitoring contractor compliance and reviewing outputs at completion of remedial works;
- Supporting Severn Trent in their ‘business as usual’ approach to the ongoing management of the infrastructure and the provision of health and safety advice to inform the PPM programme.
Some of the challenges faced by the F+G team for this work include:
- Dated existing infrastructure;
- Asbestos containing materials;
- Wide range of assets containing domestic circuitry, ranging from sludge intake rooms and pumping stations to garage facilities and large admin blocks.
The programme has been running since 2017 and is expected to complete in 2020.