Keeping the sparks flying at Sky City

Joe Heappey inspects one of three massive 1 MW standby generators at Sky City

You can truly say that M J “Joe” Heappey is an electrician at the top of his trade in Auckland. Not simply because he has done everything there is to do in the business – been a top union man and worked and travelled the world – but he also keeps an eye on matters electrical at SkyCity.
Self-effacing, unflustered, Joe Heappey, a 1966 registered electrician from Tauraroa, would be the envy of every electrician in the trade. For more than 10 years he has been the top “sparkie” in New Zealand’s most glamorous and visible complex. In addition to the landmark tower, he takes care of electrical business in 11 kitchens (with all their refrigeration, cooking and other specialist needs), four separate parking buildings, two hotels, two major convention floors, and the building we all commonly call “the casino”.

He has a number of impressive “toys” to play with too:
•    the 4.5 MW electrical distribution network
•    three 1MW stand-by generators
•    seven general purpose UPSs
•    11 emergency lighting UPSs
    eight chillers
•    six  boilers and calorifiers, along with the associated pumps, air-handlers, ventilation fans, and
•    a building management system providing monitoring and control.
And just in case you think he is only focussed on the job, he undertook two terms as president of the NZ Electrical Institute, having served as a national councillor for three years and a year as vice-president. So he pays his dues to the trade that has served him well and to his colleagues and their safety. The latter is an issue which greatly concerns him, given the various aspects of electrical supply, conversion, usage and control he has dealt with over 40-odd years.
His CV is a veritable tour of the trade from shift electrician, through SCADA installer, to testing terminations on massive power cables – the man has been there, done it all.
Having noted all that, you could say that he came through the backdoor to his current position. There has to be a message there for anyone thinking they are quite comfortable where they are and the “younger guys get all the better jobs these days”. Joe signed up with SkyCity in early 1996 as a high-voltage technician to take responsibility for organising training, operating procedures and general installation. Clearly they liked what they saw and in September 1997 appointed him to his present position – electrical and mechanical  services engineer, SkyCity.
Formal responsibilities include planning and organising the day-to-day work of the mechanical and electrical systems’ maintenance and enhancement, as well as the later addition of building services’ systems.
In addition, he co-ordinates the safety training of staff; supervising of work; and adherence to standards and codes (one of his great passions). The contractors brought in for work, which he describes as “beyond the skill or manpower range of our employed staff”,  also come under his wing, where he imposes the same high safety standards. And, of course, ensuring that the scheduled maintenance, operation, fault location and rectification of all the gear makes up his day.

Hardly a cosy number
If you were doing all this in a remote refinery or mine, it might be considered a cosy “number”. But SkyCity and all it encompasses is a massive people magnet, drawing thousands and often more than 10,000 people through its collective doors on many days. That has serious people safety issues and financial implications should the casino lose power in the middle of a big night on the tables. We’ve all seen the Oceans11/12/13/ etc movies to know what some of the ramifications of that
might be.
He balances that with a meticulous attention to detail, enabling him to recall incidents, almost half a century back. He can even tell you that he got 77 percent for Electrical Industrial Practice in his Advanced Trades Certificate examination back in 1966.   
He seemingly did not have the perfect platform when he signed up with McKays Electrical (Whg.) Limited, Whangarei and Kaitaia, and took the first steps that would take him to the top of the Auckland Skytower. It all started with a mundane electrical wiring apprenticeship, and the north-east coast port was the right place to get a solid grounding.  In no time at all, he had received a very wide range of experience in the oil refinery at Marsden Point, domestic, commercial and industrial (such as cool-stores) and everything from homes to multi-storey buildings, with their often challenging lifts.
As with many of those who rise to the top of their trade, Australia was good to Joe Heappey and he would say that it all balanced out in the end, given the projects he undertook in the places he worked in. By the time he skipped off to “really start his OE” he had picked up a ‘B’ Grade “Electrical Mechanics Licence” from the State Electricity Commission of Victoria and its Western Australian equivalent’s “Electrical Workers Licence” for electrical installing and electrical fitting.
His wry sense of humour comes through when he says: “Most importantly, after so many tricky and physically challenging jobs in Australia, I learnt to appreciate the saying – ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you strong’.”
Jobs followed in Melbourne (setting up the print works for The Age); Woomera rocket range in the Outback (which is worthy of a book in itself); Perth; and Dampier.  Over the next few years he was to spend a year in Johannesburg (using his print experience as well as installing a telephone exchange) and six months in London as the shift electrician re-commissioning boilers and heating and ventilation at the Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks.

Ultra-third-world environment
A year-long-plus spell in Hamilton, Bermuda (where he learnt more about air-conditioning and how to trim the top layer of fresh water off seawater) followed before he returned briefly to Johannesburg. He then set off to neighbouring Mozambique for a “short-sharp experience involving LNG-gas, a fertiliser works and a high-voltage cable going through a swamp, in an ultra-third-world environment, on the eve of their revolution”.
It was hardly surprising that he chose to spend a less exciting year on his brother’s farm on his return to New Zealand before beginning a 20-year career with the AEPB, starting as an electrical fitter and progressing to lead test technician for what has become Vector, via Mercury.
A test of some high voltage cables for the about-to-open SkyCity secured a job offer for Joe to join them at the beginning of 1996. He’d effectively leapt from government service to “Hollywood”.
“It was so dissimilar. They had a totally different outlook on things. Not only did everything have to work at 100 percent at all times; it had to look good too. Very glamorous and glitzy compared to where I’d come from,” he says.
Today, his world is focussed on safety, uninterrupted power and energy saving, as well as the quality of the air in that massive complex.
“If someone reports feeling a slight tingle on an escalator, say, it’s thoroughly investigated.”
SkyCity uses 4-4.5 megawatts of electricity at any one time – half of that on lighting and the other half on air-conditioning and ventilation. (Their energy-saving plans and other challenges of the site will be featured in the next issue of Electrical + Automation Technology).
Given his strong background in testing and maintenance, what is his greatest challenge at SkyCity?
“Well, although it might seem just yesterday that we opened, this complex – or a large part of it – is now 12-years old. As equipment ages, it doesn’t improve. We are fortunate that there was a good initial spec. We are trying now to figure out where we are on the curve in terms of the need for replacement, relative to faults and the frequency-of-failure profile.”

Those little babies
He does get a gleam in his eye when the three, massive 1V standby-generators come into the conversation. SkyCity never closed during the notorious Auckland-CBD three-month power blackout – that’s what “those little babies” are capable of. A veritable personal power station; although the fuel bill for three months would be a lot more today that it was then.
In a big job like this, with all the previously mentioned problems, what are the most challenging?
“Probably ventilation and air-conditioning. When you have as many people through a complex as we do in a day, inevitably, one person is ‘too cold’ is another’s ‘too hot’.”
The other major challenge is making sure beyond any doubt that aging equipment is kept fully serviceable or replacement gear is ordered in time to be installed to avoid disruptions.
As with any large complex with large numbers of day visitors and guests, dealing with people safely in an emergency is always top of mind. In the 10 years the casino has been fully-functional, best estimates are that there have been ix to eight full or partial evacuations. These are always tight calls for those involved, but the one non-negotiable is having adequate power to ensure that everyone can exit safely.
“So far, we have had no casualties and that is where we are committed to keeping it,” Joe adds.
Which is why SkyCity chooses its key personnel with all the correct credentials for the job.