A day in the life of Rachael Eynon

Our colleagues are at the heart of the ESO, working hard to operate a safe and reliable electricity system all whilst supporting the transition to a greener, and more efficient system for future generations.

Rachael Eynon, a medium-term Power System Engineer in the North Outage Planning team, lets us know about her journey into the ESO and details the complex problem-solving she undertakes in her current role.

How did you come to join National Grid ESO?

I studied Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, and was awarded a Power Academy Scholarship with the IET. This gave me the chance to work at National Grid each summer for the duration of my degree. These 8 week placements were a great introduction to the working world and the energy sector, and ultimately led to me applying for the National Grid Graduate Scheme after uni.  

Can you tell us about your background and your roles within the ESO?

I joined the Graduate Scheme in 2019, which consisted of three 6-month placements in various areas of the business as well as lots of in-house training. I spent my first 6 months in the ESO, creating technical appendices for customer connection agreements. I then had the chance to move outside the ESO, and work for National Grid Group’s sustainability team. This was a step outside my comfort zone as it wasn’t an engineering role, but it involved training other engineers in the business on our sustainability goals and tracking tools.

For my last 6 months I returned to the ESO and joined the North Outage Planning team, where I chose to stay for my first permanent role.

What does your current role entail? / Tell us about your job?

I help to manage the outage plan for the current year; dealing with changes to the outage plan from four weeks away until the end of the plan year in March. When we get new outage requests in this time frame, I have to identify what the worst fault on the network could be during that outage, and make sure we have a plan to manage the network and any local demand if that fault does occur. I need to check the demand figures and run simulation studies to confirm that the network will be secure, and then I also need to communicate my findings to any relevant customers and make sure they agree to any additional risk during the outage.

It is very fast paced, as we tend to experience a lot of changes for a variety of reasons. For instance, if work on one outage takes longer than expected, delays can have a knock-on effect to other outages in the plan. I really like that the role gives me the technical, engineering experience relevant to my degree, along with the communication and customer facing aspects – it definitely keeps things interesting!