The Post: Sustainability Manager, Firmus Energy
Post Holder: Neill Gallagher
Good communication skills are central to Neill Gallagher’s role as a Sustainability Manager.
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
I’ve worked in the gas industry in Northern Ireland for over 24 years, I started as an agency employed Records Officer progressing through various roles over the years. I have been with firmus energy since we started operations in 2005, initially as a Project Engineer, responsible for the roll out of large diameter spine mains in the Ballymena, Antrim and Craigavon networks. In 2013 I progressed to the role of Operations and Maintenance Manager and assumed responsibility of all post construction engineering activities and have more recently implemented our Asset Management system which is accredited to the internationally recognised ISO 55001 standard.
In 2021 I took on the role of Sustainability Manager where I have been looking to the future of our networks and the potential routes to decarbonisation of heat by harnessing renewable sources of biomethane as well as developing the roadmap for the transition to hydrogen which would completely remove carbon from our networks.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Geography was my favourite subject and it remains very relevant to my job and our industry with our dependence on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which enable the storage of our network asset information against the detailed geographical background maps supplied by Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland.
Did you go on to further/higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I completed a Higher National Diploma in Construction at what is now Belfast Metropolitan College, Millfield Campus. This was a sandwich course and I completed a one year placement as a site engineer for Laing Construction at the former Mackie Engineering Springvale Site in West Belfast.
How did you get into your area of work?
The construction qualification coupled with the civil engineering experience from my placement year gave me a perfect background for gas network mains and connections construction activity.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
Like many young people I didn’t know what I wanted to do after school, I guess I got lucky in terms of choosing a course of interest and the rest fell into place.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
A technical background was required and the HND in Construction met this requirement. The rest of the skills have been picked up through on the job learning coupled with relevant and often bespoke training courses to cover the varied aspects of the industry.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
We have a range of backgrounds in our engineering team at firmus, however civil engineering, mechanical engineering, construction engineering and geography/GIS would be the most common.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
Communication skills are paramount, the ability to build relationships and develop levels of trust and play a role within a team are major requirements.
What does a typical day entail?
The stereotype of ‘no two days are the same’ definitely applies to my job. My current role involves a lot of research, the natural gas industry is moving with real pace in the face of the pending climate emergency with numerous ongoing trials of new technologies to achieve decarbonisation in the shortest time possible. Keeping abreast of these changes and developing plans as to how these could be applied to our networks really does make for exciting times.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
The development of the Ten Towns Natural Gas network which now includes over 1800km of polyethylene distribution mains and over 50,000 customer connections has been an exciting journey, however building and developing a top class engineering team has been equally important. Gas distribution is a unique industry and we pride ourselves on giving people the opportunity to learn and develop and progress into network engineering roles which has proved very successful in developing fully committed and experienced engineering team members over the past number of years.
Why is what you do important?
All utility provision tends to be taken for granted by the general public, the fact that natural gas is available on tap 24/7 across our network means that we’re doing our job and being taken for granted is another way of saying that you’re 100% reliable.
How has Covid-19 impacted your business/role?
The past two years have proved challenging for everyone, we had to quickly adapt and implement new working practices to ensure that we could continue to deliver natural gas in the same reliable manner that our customers have become accustomed to. Our prime concerns were that we could still respond to gas emergencies rapidly as well as ensuring our maintenance activities were targeted at critical services such as healthcare and food production to keep the gas flowing and help to keep the country running as smoothly as possible.
What adjustments have you had to make?
Ensuring that our critical staff and contractors adopt safe working practices including social distancing and use of PPE to protect themselves and the public. Our offices have also had considerable modifications including implementing one way systems and reducing office capacity using work rotation systems and working from home where possible.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
Based on my experience and the friendships I have made over the years, It is an industry that I would definitely recommend and this is perhaps the most exciting time to get involved as we look forward to great changes over the coming years.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
Landscape Gardening.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
Keep grafting and opportunities will come.
Describe your ideal day off.
Time spent with my wife, two daughters and dog is the ticket.
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
I can’t really say as I haven’t looked for a job in the last sixteen years, however enthusiasm and research before applying must be two key aspects. Having interviewed numerous candidates over the years it is an immediate turn-off if someone hasn’t bothered to research the business.
The natural gas industry is moving with real pace in the face of the pending climate emergency with numerous ongoing trials of new technologies to achieve decarbonisation in the shortest time possible.
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