Employee Spotlight – Operational Controller

What does your job involve?

I work in RES Control Centre which involves various elements. Global monitoring and escalation of faults at wind farms (on and offshore), battery storage sites and solar sites. We control work, access and security at UK sites, maintaining safe systems of work at all times. We are the first port of call and provide emergency response and incident management when required.

What attracted you to work in the wind industry?

Initially I was attracted to renewable energy as I wanted to get my foot in the door of a growing industry and one that makes a meaningful difference to our environment and economy. A friend of mine had also recently joined RES and seemed to be enjoying the role. Having had experience working in a control centre, he told me about the vacancy and I jumped at the chance to work for RES.

What is a typical day like for you?

Day to day our main priorities are to monitor and escalate faults in turbines to keep the down time to a minimum and maximise output at our sites. We take calls from technicians on sites which enables us to transfer control of turbines after site specific checks have been carried out, ensuring the caller is qualified to do the work required. Mornings are very busy for us when everyone books on site and wants to start work. Throughout the day we deal with emails, requests for job cards, adding new job guidelines and hourly checks of all the sites we look after. We also work proactively with the National Grid to respond to their requests within minutes. The only thing prioritised over this would be an emergency at site.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy the interaction with people the most, I work in a small control room, usually three people on shift at a time. There is a nice family feel to my team. Our days are varied, we have busy spells and quieter spells, there is always something new to learn and I enjoy the problem-solving elements of my role.