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When we talk about pathways into the engineering industry, apprenticeships and degrees may be two of the most popular routes, but there are far more options for people who want to gain the skills, knowledge and experience needed to make a success of their careers.

To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day we sat down with Shannon O’Neil to discuss how her journey took her from College to Vital Energi via a Merchant Navy Cadetship.

Tell us a little about your career…

I joined Vital Energi as an Operations and Maintenance Engineer after leaving the merchant navy and have been with the company for a year and a half now. My job calls for me to maintain and oversee the sites, making sure they perform safely and efficiently to provide heat whilst maintaining their parameters. I schedule and undertake maintenance; perform inspections and monitor the system and I absolutely love it. There are many similarities in the role comparing with the navy that I massively enjoyed, whilst being able to come ashore and live a more sociable lifestyle.

I’ve been here one year and a half and I like how everyone is eager to help and I am gaining more experience and learning every day.  I love working with experienced engineers who talk me through new tasks, expand my knowledge in engineering and are keen in working together to help each other out.  The diversity within O&M has been so beneficial to me as I am constantly learning new skills and ways to work from them.

Why did you enter the heat network industry?

We cover various sites, the main site of mine is Queens Quay. This is similar to what I was doing onboard ships in terms of the controls and how the plant operates allowing me to transfer my skills. Ships tend to take their heat from engines to heat their domestic water so the CHP’s we also work with operate very similar. I undertook engine overhauls on the ship so I was intrigued with the annual boiler inspections and the work that goes into stripping, rebuilding and testing them.

My merchant navy career took me to some far-flung places and saw me sail through the Panama Canal and spend time in South America amongst other places.  After 6 years however, I was ready to end to the two-months-on two-months-off routine and applied for a job at Vital Energi.

How did you enter the industry?

I initially did a HND at college in Electrical Engineering. With this I was planning on going to university but I was more so interested in the practical work and getting experience. The cadetship offered 8 months of experience with getting the qualification so it was an easy decision for me to make and it turned out to be the most amazing experience.

I was in the merchant navy for 6 years and the knowledge and experience I gained really positioned me well for finding another job and the green energy industry looked like a great place for me to use my skills.

A former landfill site is set to play a central role in Bedford Borough Council’s net zero plans after the first of 8,080 solar PV panels were installed at the Bedford Green Technology & Innovation Park project.

After extensive regeneration works to the site, 4.2MW of capacity will be installed, stretching across a 30-hectare plot.  Piling and frames have been installed and, when complete, the project will save an estimated 1,000 tonnes of carbon per year.

The project is set to be operational in April and tested and commissioned by May 2022.

We are sharing a powerful and open conversation between Mike Cooke and Simon Jones about something that affects over 50% of the population, and highlights…

Your health comes first – no deadline is more important than your wellbeing.

Support makes a difference – knowing you have colleagues who listen and genuinely care can help more than you think.

Talking matters – sometimes, a simple conversation can be the first step toward getting the support you need.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Simon for wanting to share his story and for reminding us all why prioritising our health is so important. Watch the video in full here:

Take a moment today to show appreciation for your colleagues and check in with those around you.

Vital Energi have signed a five-year deal with the North West Cambridge Development, providing over 1,000 Eddington residents with a revolutionary way to manage their energy use.

The first phase of the North West Cambridge Development, Eddington, has over 1,100 homes and has been designed with exemplary sustainability specifications to help support a healthy, active and environmentally conscious community.

The North West Cambridge Development has signed up to Glass, keen to encourage online account management in order to reduce paper billing, in line with their sustainability goals. Glass, Vital Energi’s new smart energy app and online portal, allows Eddington residents to access their utility accounts in a way that is easy and convenient for them.

Vital recently developed and launched Glass to give heat network users the visibility and control to better manage their energy use and payments, and it allows users to top-up or pay their bills anytime, anywhere. Using the built-in weather forecast, customers can also predict their future spend.

Glass also provides housing associations, local authorities, developers and other service managers with access to energy consumption and financial data via a dedicated portal. This will allow the North West Cambridge Development to better serve Eddington residents, optimise network performance and effectively reduce debt.

Warren Forsyth, Operations Director at Eddington, said: “We are delighted to have started working with Vital on the heat and estate service charge billing for all Eddington customers.  This will help us further develop and streamline Eddington’s utility billing to the benefit of our customers.”

Vital Energi has been working closely with North West Cambridge Development over the last seven years after supplying, designing and installing their district heating network, and taking over the operation and maintenance of their energy centre.

The Eddington energy centre generates heating and hot water for the homes at Eddington distributed via a district heating network rather than individual gas boilers in each property. This means for efficient use of resources, providing greener, more environmentally friendly heating, hot water and energy, which is a vital part of the sustainability strategy for the North West Cambridge Development.

Click here for more information about Glass.

Bristol’s heat network will enter a new stage of decarbonisation when the Castle Park heat pump begins generating low-carbon heat and we’re delighted that the new year has brought a series of major milestones.

The project team have so far installed the abstraction platform, which is responsible for the intake of harbour water, thermal store and, most recently, the delivery of the 32-tonne packaged plant room which will house the water distribution pumps, which circulate low carbon hot water from the water source heat pump within the energy centre.

The Castle Park project represents a significant investment and is being delivered in partnership between Goram Homes, Bristol City Council and Vital Energi and will supply 3MW of green heat into the network which already supplies heating and hot water to 1,000 properties.

The 3MW water source heat pump will take water from the nearby floating harbour and use it to generate low-carbon heat and hot water for the residents of Bristol via the existing Bristol heat network.

As part of the heat pumps development, people enjoying the north side of the park may notice warm air being ejected away from the energy centre. This is due to the installation of Dry Air Coolers which allow the heat from the pump to be dissipated into the air while the energy centre is being built. The scaffolding will be erected on the 28^th Jan 2022, with the units being delivered and set up on the 31^st Jan 2022. The units will be fenced off in the park and the warm air will be ejected away from the energy centre towards the north of the park. They will be there for approximately 6-8 weeks in total.

More information on the Bristol City Council’s heat network can be found on their Energy Service website.

Take a look at the progress pictures here

We recently visited the Newington estate in Southwark, where we joined Southwark Council, ICAX Ltd, residents connected to the network, and the Tenants and Residents Association, in planting 5,000 daffodil bulbs across the estate.

Contracts Manager, Mark Pocknell, who is overseeing the project, said:

“We’re committed to bringing social value to places where we deliver projects, and so last week we joined Newington residents and planted 5,000 daffodils across their estate. It was a really enjoyable day – we were lucky with the weather and it only took around 2 hours to plant all the bulbs.

“I’d like to thank everyone who got their hands dirty, and I can’t wait to see the results of our hard work in the spring.

We’ve been working on a ground-breaking project to decarbonise the borough by retrofitting water source heat pumps into existing heat networks across the Newington, Consort and Wyndham estates, which will provide over 2,000 properties with a more resilient, efficient, low carbon heat supply.

The Consort and Wyndham estate heat pumps are fully installed, coupled with their buried pipework from the 120m deep bore holes back to the estate’s energy centres. The penultimate installation at Newington estate is due to be complete around March 2022 which will then see all three of the Southwark estates using heat pump technology to provide heat to all the homes connected to the existing networks.

Blackburn with Darwen Council have set a target of being carbon neutral by 2030 and as part of this ambition, will be working with Vital Energi on a new heat decarbonisation plan which will investigate ways in which the council can lower the emissions from their estate.

Vital Energi will produce the plan which will inform the council’s transition to being carbon neutral by 2030 and inform an application for funding to the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

David Wilkinson, Vital Energi’s Design Director for Pre-Construction, commented, “This is a fantastic opportunity to be working on a project with some of the area’s best-loved and most-iconic buildings. The mix of premises make this project interesting, with some originating from the mid-1800s and others only approximately 10 years old.”

The council has chosen 13 of their buildings for the project and Vital Energi have undertaken in-depth surveys to identify the best options which could reduce carbon emissions by hundreds of tonnes per year. Buildings include:

• 10 Duke St, Blackburn
• Blackburn Central Library
• Blackburn Market
• Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
• Blackburn Sports & Leisure Centre
• Blackburn Town Hall
• Darwen Leisure Centre
• Darwen Town Hall
• Blackburn Enterprise Centre
• King Georges Hall
• Witton Park Arena
• Darwen Town Hall
• Darwen Library & Theatre

Vital Energi have dual trained their first crop of welders in the essential skills of both arc welding & oxyacetylene welding needed to deliver small & large diameter district heating pipework.

Whilst steel district heating mains are predominantly welded using Arc welding, pipework of 100mm or less must use differing methods due to the wall thicknesses of the steel pipe work. Oxyacetylene welding is a preferred method for this for pipe sizes 100mm and below, and the number of trained operatives in this area has dwindled in recent years, alongside the overall number of welders in the UK declining by a quarter over the last five years.

As welders with the necessary skills are no longer available in the numbers required, Vital created a training programme at their £2m training academy to upskill their existing workforce with the necessary skills.

Ashley Walsh, Vital Energi’s Managing Director of Heat Networks explains, “Oxyacetylene welding has been in decline, as a skill, for a while, which is worrying as we believe Heat Network Zoning will see a significant increase in the amount of district heating being installed, and this is a necessary skill for successful delivery.  If this continues it will create a skills gap which will be a genuine barrier to the UK delivering heat networks and meeting its net zero targets.

“The only way to address this is for organisations to take responsibility and train employees in the essential skills they will need to deliver heat networks to the high standard required for what is an essential part of the UK’s energy infrastructure.”

The training sees Vital’s employees undertake a 6-month training course under the guidance of an experienced welding tutor and, after passing practical exams at an independent UKAS testing house, become accredited to perform oxyacetylene welding.

Mr Hutchinson continues, “There has been some outstanding work done to create high standards for the industry, such as the Heat Network Code of Practice and the work being done through the Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme, but this will only have an impact if operatives have the skills necessary to deliver a quality install and we are confident that graduates from our training course will have these skills.”

The first graduates from the project are now working to install major heat networks throughout the UK and we look forward to expanding the training to more Vital Energi employees.

Ashley Walsh is Vital Energi’s Managing Director for Heat Networks and has been instrumental in delivering some of the UK’s largest district heating projects, including the Queens Quay, Liverpool Waters and Leeds PIPES.  David Wilkinson, our Design Director sits on the Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme Steering Group and has decades of overseeing the design of major UK heat networks and energy centres.  Both sat down with us to discuss the key considerations for delivering heat networks and if you’d like to see the conversation, click here.