Perched 45 metres (148 feet) high, young apprentice electricians replace a connection atop a pylon. In the UK, National Grid recruitment is at full power as its electricity network adapts for renewables.
As new production sites multiply, particularly for wind and solar power, the privately-run company that owns the high-voltage pylons and cables in England and Wales said it is implementing “the largest overhaul of the electricity grid in generations”.
“It’s quite fun and exciting really,” Becky Hodgson, an overhead lines trainee, enthused at the prospect of “connecting” the UK’s future energy needs.
At the National Grid training centre in Eakring, a village in central England, 25-year-old Hodgson unwinds rope from a winch at the foot of a large pylon.
To the sound of an engine and pulleys, a…
