BVIEC linemen being trained to do maintenance without turning off power
The programme is designed to assist team members in performing critical work without interrupting electricity supply to homes and businesses, the BVIEC said in the first episode of the BVIEC Live-Line Series posted to the company’s Facebook page on Wednesday, July 9, 2025.
This means “fewer outages and a more resilient grid for the entire territory”.
The training is being instructed by Mr Tim Self, owner of Tim Self Powerline Safety and Training.
3 four-week sessions
Mr Self explained that the programme is done in three sessions of four weeks each.
The first cohort of linemen being trained under this Live-Line Training Workshop is presently in the third and final four-week session of their training.
“We are now back here at our third session, all of the training yard is energised at 13,200 volts,” Mr Self added, “They're doing all their tasks energised.”
During the final two weeks of the training, the linemen will do jobs across the island in “the real environment”, following which they graduate.
Power is never turned off
The class was at the point of conducting a transfer of a three-phase junction pole during Wednesday’s posting.
“They are transferring all the facilities from an existing pole to a new pole. So they're taking all those individual tasks that they've been practising and bringing them together with a job plan to complete a task,” Mr Self explained.
He said the advantages of this style of work include being safer and the power never being turned off.
“The power was never turned off, even while we were at lunch. The whole job can continue. The customers stay in service while we do our maintenance,” Mr Self said.
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14 Responses to “BVIEC linemen being trained to do maintenance without turning off power”
Turn the power off and be safe.
But by the way back to hotline work, it's a totally no smoking and drinking moment of your life because you have to be very cognitive and alert of your surroundings, the three things to keep in mind during work is" in series" and " phase to phase" and " phase to ground" and of course be conscious of isolation and insulation and approach distance of equipment boom or your body, I trained the most difficult way, I was trained on a pole mounted fibre glass platform, it's like a diving board. It's the best feeling of accomplishment, I plan to revisit northwest linesman college in Idaho where I was trained.
The amount of tools to be used like spiral link stick and load pick up jumper cables and line hose and blankets, it's really pretty when a linesman cover a pole and line completely, and don't forget to go to your quiet room each morning to take out the rubber gloves from it's protective leather and roll it up from the cuff and listen for air leaks as it expand from the air trapped inside.
Guys safe job, no drinking or smoking, and the Bviec gotta build a social club for the linesman so it creates a cohesive bonding, because their relationship with each other have to be excellent where each other's life will be in each other's hands daily, lines work and hotline work is my love.