Lloyd Griffiths
My job typically consists of spending some time in the office and sometimes I go out to site as well, where we’re building new substations, connecting customers to National Grid’s network and looking at the options for this.
In my current role I’ve worked on a number of projects, some of them ranging from a £95 million new substation in Swansea to smaller projects where we’re extending existing substations.
It’s a really exciting time to be working at National Grid at the moment, there’s a lot of change in the generation mix so we’ve got a lot of new customers coming on - be it new nuclear or alternative sources such as wind or biomass. We’ve got a number of those in our portfolio in the South West, so me and my team will be working on those over the next five to ten years.
It’s really important that we as National Grid get these projects delivered. The government is really keen for us to deliver a low carbon economy and the key part of that is decarbonising the electricity industry. This means connecting lots of new power sources – new nuclear, wind, biomass, as well as more conventional fired power stations, which means a lot of work and a really busy time in the transmission business.
I really enjoy this role in particular as it really does give me the opportunity to innovate. There’s a real desire and appetite to try new things which in my previous role wasn’t necessarily the case. You feel that you’re recognised for trying to do new things and innovate and I particularly enjoy that opportunity.
I’d say technical roles within National Grid are open to anyone with a technical understanding. You don’t have to have HV equipment experience to be an effective engineer within National Grid. A lot of the roes are fairly generic and it brings together engineering expertise, commercial acumen and project management skills into one role. Don’t be put off if you haven’t had high voltage experience in the past, there’s definitely a role and a place for you here at National Grid.