Why Jody Scott loves working on power station overhauls

Jody Scott, Project Planning and Governance Supervisor

Overhauls are a major logistical exercise, which involve getting necessary equipment to site, and working closely with contractors and suppliers to ensure everything happens to schedule. Effective planning and scheduling is essential, along with having the right governance in place for major decisions around the overhaul’s budget, duration and scope.

Jody Scott has been doing planning, scheduling and governance for the overhaul team at Callide Power Station for more than 11 years. Below she provides an insight into her role and why she loves working on overhauls.

What does your role in the Callide overhaul team entail?

As the Project Planning and Governance advisor I am involved from the early stages of planning and preparation through to the close out phase after the overhaul has been executed.

Typically, planning an overhaul follows a specific project management framework. I work to ensure we are on track in each of our planning phases and have the right timelines for detailed planning and execution. I rely heavily on software such as SAP and our scheduling tool Primavera, which enables me to produce various reports throughout execution.

What’s the most rewarding thing about working on overhauls?

Overhaul fever! I love the build up to unit ‘desync’ (taking the unit offline for overhaul) the teams coming together, contractor work crews arriving on site and watching as everyone comes together to work as one team as we have done for many years. It’s the culmination of the planning we have been doing for the better part of 16 months.

No overhaul comes without challenges, but when you’re working with the right team where everyone is focussed on the one goal, everything eventually falls into place.

How do you achieve work-life balance during an overhaul?

My husband and I both work in the overhaul team so work-life balance can be challenging at times with our children. However, I am incredibly lucky that I have the capacity to work from home if required and this flexibility allows me to juggle both daycare and school along with the longer shifts required during overhaul execution.

What is next for you after the Callide 2022 overhaul program?

Callide has multiple generating units, so when we are not executing an overhaul we are usually planning the next one. We also regularly review our processes and lessons learned, while looking at ways of improving what we do from one overhaul to the next.

Like any power station, Callide also has unplanned outages from time-to-time and I provide assistance around planning and reporting for these works.