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Spotlight on: Statutory outages
We support engineering companies across the UK and internationally to successfully deliver outages. These programmes provide job opportunities to grow your industry experience.
What is a statutory outage ?
Safety mandates require operational infrastructure, such as power stations, to perform statutory outages to undertake regular safety checks and planned maintenance. These outages take the power generation infrastructure offline, so it’s vital that work is completed as quickly and safely as possible, to manage the tight operational deadlines around the downtime.
To achieve this, companies typically engage hundreds of additional workers to deliver the outage programme throughout the day and night.
Within the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, you may hear an outage referred to as a turnaround (TAR), when equipment is taken offline to perform essential work that cannot be completed whilst operational.
Want to find out more about statutory outages?
We’ve provided a more detailed explanation of what a statutory outage is in this comprehensive blog article below.
What job opportunities are there on a statutory outage?
We’ll typically work with one or more of our clients on site to recruit the additional support they need to deliver the areas of the outage programme they are responsible for. This may include facilities maintenance and engineering roles, as well as some support roles that may surprise you.
With the increased number of workers on site operating on day and night shifts, sites often required food service and chef positions to work within the canteen facilities. In addition operative positions are typically required to help across a range of areas, including cleaning, storeroom support and assisting engineering teams.
This means that a statutory outage on your nearby nuclear power station isn’t just an opportunity for certified engineers to find work, there are plenty of opportunities across the supply chain if you’re looking to build up your experience in an industrial environment.
Over the years we’ve supported outages on Sizewell B, Heysham 1, Heysham 2, Langage, South Humber Bank, Enfield, Isle of Grain, Pembroke, Torness, Hartlepool, Peterhead, Fawley, Aghada, Grangemouth and Coolkeeragh.
Interested in getting involved with statutory outages?
You can see the latest outages we are recruiting for below, or follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn to hear about future planned outages.
What are the requirements to work on an outage?
You’ll need to have the right security clearance to work on an outage, because you’ll be accessing high security power generation facilities. This may vary depending on the site or industry. If you wanted to work on a nuclear power station outage for example, you may need to hold Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance and have a valid Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check. If you need to acquire these then NRL’s in-house compliance teams will be able to support you with this, and once purchased the clearance typically lasts a number of years, so you could benefit from other work opportunities in the future.
During the recruitment and onboarding process checks will need to be undertaken to confirm your identity and obtain references, and you will be required to complete a pre-employment drug and alcohol test. Random testing will also be operational during the outage. Ahead of going on site, a site induction will be arranged where you’ll be given all the support you need to operate safely whilst working on the outage.
The recruitment process
Our recruiters will walk you through the outage application process, as we’ll need you to share information such as your education and employment history, your right to work in the UK and any existing security clearance you may hold. As your recruitment process progresses, we’ll need you to share crucial information such as references to support your application.
Here at NRL our regional branches regularly support clients to manage their latest outage programmes, so our teams are well experienced to help candidates navigate outage placements.
I joined NRL back in April for the outage at Heysham, but the process started back in January. The staff at the Heysham office were extremely helpful in getting all the security documents needed for getting on site. Good communication - and now I'm on my 2nd contract with NRL and looking forward to what the future brings with this company.
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