in today's news, budget retailer b&m is fined one million pounds after an
electrician sustains horrific injuries in an electrical explosion at a warehouse in liverpool
the eca asks the government to explain why electricity is four times more expensive than gas
and a 40 million pound a year electrical contracting firm collapses in wales with
the loss of all jobs welcome to electrical news weekly in association with schneider electric
whether you're listening in the van on-site or down at the wholesale counter i'm joe
robinson and i've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble
and as always listen out for the words that i've been challenged to slip into today's show
and comment below when you think you've spotted them for the chance to win an efixx goodie bag
a judge has ordered the discount retailer B&M to pay a fine of one million pounds after
electrician Shahina Rahman was set ablaze in an explosion at its warehouse in liverpool
rahman was given the job of connecting a generator to bnm's mains voltage distribution board
this was to allow the company to continue its core site functions whilst other contractors worked
on high voltage maintenance the board is in close proximity to the high voltage equipment which was
energized while rahman was wiring up the generator at a certain point the spanner rahman was holding
came into contact with a live high voltage buzz bar causing an instant blast and fireball
the 35 year old was set on fire and sustained serious burns to his arms hands thighs legs and
face rahman was rushed to hospital where doctors later placed him in an induced coma for two weeks
he then had to undergo a series of skin grafts as a result of the incident rahman was unable to
work for five months at liverpool crown court this month prosecutor craig morris said that the first
era bnm made was putting site maintenance manager jim anders in charge of the task of overseeing
the fairly complex and potentially dangerous project despite having no qualifications or
experience in electrical work a mix-up with cable deliveries then made what was already
a tight time scale even tighter this put rahman and the other contractors under a time pressure
another failing was the fact that b&m had allowed the work to proceed despite not having received a
requested risk assessment from the generator supplier Agrekko additionally outside workers
including rahman were not given any safety inductions on the day morris told the court that
it is a core safety principle that work should not take place on or near to a live conductor
unless it is unreasonable for it to be dead in other words don't undertake work next to
a live supply if it can be reasonably avoided he said that as experienced electrical contractors
rahman's employer DACA limited of bolton should have assessed if they could have connected the
generators while the electricity supply was dead defending b m barrister mark watson qc said that
the company had changed its procedures to ensure that this situation will not be repeated b m
admitted its failings and profoundly apologized for the consequences as well as the one million
pound fine the judge ordered the discounter to pay almost five thousand pounds in court costs
following the incident daycare has ceased trading and was fined a token 100 pounds we at efixx have
created some cpd training videos on the subject of safe isolation and i've put the links in the
show notes in other news this week the electrical contractors association has asked the government a
simple question why is electricity four times more expensive than gas the organization has called
for the next leader of the conservative party to make sure that both are taxed at the same rate it
points out that in 2021 40 of the uk's electricity was generated from renewable energy sources
but fuel taxes on domestic electricity bills are 20 higher than on gas meaning renewable energy
is more heavily taxed the ECA says taxing them the same would give a boost to low carbon technologies
such as electric heating and electric vehicle charging points and no doubt help prevent us
from resorting to candlesticks if the gas runs out however another organization is warning that the
rush to install those electric vehicle charges could be leading to disaster the skills body
city and guild says a lack of appropriate training and qualifications could be leading to thousands
of unsafe ev charger installations in homes streets and commercial locations it's calling
on the industry to ensure all those working on ev charging point installations are equipped with the
necessary skills they need to install them safely in a city and guild survey of 500 uk electricians
almost all understood there to be major risks associated with an electric vehicle charging work
yet despite the dangers only 28 of them have undertaken specific ev charger training and
with 73 likely to seek work in installing or repairing ev charge points in the next 12 months
this demonstrates a clear risk unless companies ensure their workforce have the necessary training
skills knowledge and experience to undertake this work safely this new research is supported by
findings of a report compiled for the department for transport it found that nearly a fifth of new
at home charge point installations installed as part of the electric vehicle home charge scheme
had dangerous or potentially dangerous issues and only 32 were labeled as satisfactory i wonder if
any of those dodgy installations had developed that fishy mackerel type smell from burning
components now we have lots of great training videos on charger installation safety and i've put
the links in the show notes so check them out the big business story this week is news that welsh
contracting firm nwp electrical and mechanical has collapsed into administration with the loss of 59
jobs the company worked on design and build schemes worth 40 million pounds every year
these were in both the commercial and residential sectors and in both wales and across the uk
however joint administrators said that because of the ongoing economic conditions impacting
the sector significant pressure was placed on the firm's cash flow and its profits
leading to its insolvency the big product news this week is the announcement that the struts
layer is being launched in the uk for the first time now it may sound like a heavy metal band
but this powerhouse of a tool from american firm ridgid will cut through unistrut
like a hot knife through butter we'll give it an efix bench test up in skipton and you can get the
link to it in the show notes but i can confirm that it delivers workshop quality channel cuts
without burrs in just five seconds there's no grinding or soaring sparks and tons of swarf
just a clean consistent cut with a simple pull of a trigger it's been used by happy electrical
contractors in america for a few years and the good news is that this beast is now available
on this side of the pond through tool distributor thorne and derek if you stick around until the end
of the news weekly your reward will be a sneak peek of an exclusive head to head where we pit
this bad boy against its nearest rival you can bag other rewards in a new program for electricians
contractors and installers called voltimum plus it works alongside your existing loyalty schemes
and you can earn points seamlessly on kit from top brands such as schneider electric in next to
no time you'll have enough for your next holiday toolkit drill or grill i've popped a link for more
info in the show notes and as always a big thanks to schneider for sponsoring this week's show
and finally to a gentleman who's being extremely well rewarded it's been revealed that a recently
qualified electrician who's just 21 years old is one of the highest paid in the world
alexei ilyakin and an astonishing quarter of a million pounds last year the revelation has
caused a political storm in his native new york and two of his electrician colleagues at the fire
department also earned similar salaries all due to long hours of overtime at skyscraper high rates
all three earn more than the city's mayor the super salaries have been slammed by councillor
kalman yeager who says the department should hire sufficient people to do the work i think
it's about time gary and i put in for a pay raise what do you think anyway that's it from us today
i'm not working overtime tonight we've got some great videos coming up on our youtube channel this
week including a q a on the difference between plugs and sockets not a question you'd think
that needed asking but it became increasingly obvious that it would do and also i pay a visit
to a farm where it turns out that the cows need wi-fi so stay tuned for that best of all
loyal viewers that's you that is you can gain a sneak peek first and exclusively of that special
head-to-head that i promised you the strut slayer versus its nearest rival the milwaukee bandsaw
to see all the action and who wins click here if you think you know the words that we've smuggled
into today's show pop your guess into the comments and we'll dig out a goody bag prize to the first
to get the right answers last week's words were discommoded and unparliamentary and the
first person to guess both right was friend of the show and regular commenter sergio fernandez
from sunny costa del watford so click the link in the show notes to claim your prize sergio thanks
for listening to this episode of electrical news weekly in association with schneider electric make
sure you subscribe to receive the next update thanks for listening and until next time have
a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm