READING, UK -- Over three days in August, Ham Baker was invited by Thames Water to present a full day’s awareness training course to their Trunk Sewer Operations team, to help them understand the fundamentals of Penstocks and to deploy a more proactive approach to maintaining this critical asset base used to control and regulate wastewater and sewerage in the Thames network.
This training was borne out of a series of audits performed by the Ham Baker engineering team across a selection of the 800+ penstock asset portfolio within Thames Water. The audits, using a traffic light scoring mechanism, identified particular areas of maintenance and repair needed to improve and enhance the performance of these assets. On review it was agreed that education of the Thames team on the basic areas of Penstock build and operation would help protect the penstock assets for the future and with it ensure consistent and timely operation when the penstocks are needed.
The training, entitled Below Ground Asset Workshop consisted of internal presentations from Thames Trunk Sewer Operational team to their operatives covering off Health and Safety aspects of their work and the Penstocks presentation and workshop from Ham Baker, this included the operating principles and construction of the Penstocks assets already in use across the Thames network and a maintenance regime to ensure their operation.
The training over the three days reached out to 63 participants and was conducted with strict adherence to the government’s Covid-19 guidelines.
James Brown, Thames Water waste networks regional manager said:
“The training days provided a valuable insight into how we can improve the efficiencies of our assets today and into the future ensuring we continue to improve our service delivery across the network.”
The Ham Baker team headed up by Bob Dimmock, operates out of a satellite office located at the Wick Lane Thames Water Depot, and consists of 3 senior engineers with over 90 years’ experience of Penstock operation.
Thames Water’s Trunk Sewer Operations team maintains the company’s waste systems across London and the Thames Valley.
