Cadent was recognised at the recent Gas Industry Awards 2021, after scooping five of the eight awards they had been nominated. Walking away with The Young Person's Achievement Award, two Manager of the Year Awards, Customer Service Award and Product of the Year Award.
The awards ceremony jointly organised by the Institute of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) and the Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA) finally went ahead virtually this year, after being postponed due to pandemic restrictions in 2020.
“It’s an absolute privilege to win the Young Person’s Achievement Award” explained Gulraj Chatha. Who was recognised for his deployment of an online system for the management of new works, modifications and repairs.
He continued, “As an engineering led technology solution; on our desired platforms, we were delighted to move from inception to completion at a quicker pace than usual. The feel I have accepted this award on behalf of many colleagues, across various functions (engineering, IS, operations & projects), who helped shape and implement the best practice processes to manage the integrity of our assets more efficiently”
Cadent is very proud to have won the Customer Service Award for the teams’ efforts to help the community of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, to restore gas supplies after a burst water main flooded the gas network.
Darren Elsom, Director of Eastern Network, who received the award on Cadent's behalf, explained, "I am delighted that we have been recognised by IGEM/EUA for the exceptional customer service we provided to the community of Wirksworth, where 200 colleagues worked tirelessly across several days to restore the gas supplies to homes and businesses.
“The local community adopted us as their ‘Orange Angels’ and we received fantastic feedback throughout the incident. We’ve set a new standard for ourselves that really puts our customers at the heart of our operations."
This year, the judges decided to give two Manager of the Year awards, with both awards going to Cadent people, Hilary Buxton, Director of Engineering and Julia Dwyer, Director - Cadent Foundation.
Hilary commented, "I was extremely flattered to be nominated for this award. Whilst its lovely to be recognised individually I do see the nomination as a wider reflection of our great team. We achieve so much through bringing on talented engineers and supporting their development to bring their full contributions to the fore.
“It's an absolute pleasure to be a senior manager in our industry. Every day is a school day, with fresh challenges and issues to work through, but channelling and building on the skills and ingenuity of our people we can always find a way to a resolution together.”
Julia said, "I feel really honoured to have been shortlisted for the Manager of the Year award. This is a dream role, being able to make a difference for so many people - I don’t think I could get a better job, plus I have a fantastic team to work with!”
Finally, Product of the Year was given to the Mechanical Purge End Fitting project by Plasson in collaboration with Cadent and Rosen.
Mark Pritchard, Cadent's Project Manager, together with Shaun Lewis, Technical Lead on the project, said, “We are delighted with the recognition of this award for the Plasson Purge End. We are fortunate to have been involved with this project from its conception, through testing, trialling and implementation, where the efforts applied by the whole Project Team are a credit to the wider business, both operational and commercial. Our thanks go to all involved, including the operational teams who delivered the live trials – they were reluctant to return the prototype products, so we knew we were onto a winner!”
Congratulations to all the winners of the IGEM & EUA Gas Industry Awards!