David Hender

Power & Water Corporation

I'm David Michael Hender, born & raised in Darwin. This is a brief overview of my 40 years of service working for the Northern Territory Government. I commenced employment in 1983 with the Northern Territory Electricity Commission (NTEC) at Tennant Creek Power Station as a truck driver for the overhead lines section. I became a qualified Electrical Line Worker in 1990 & moved back to Darwin 5 years later.

Shortly after relocating back to Darwin I gained a qualification as a Live Line Worker. This entailed working on live 11kV & 22kV Distribution Power Networks using Glove n Barrier methods & on live 66kV & 132kV Transmission Circuits using Hot Stick methods.

In 2002, I trained to become a dedicated High Voltage Field Operator carrying out live switching on all system voltages within the Darwin region. 2009 I moved into the Power Control Centre for the Northern Territory at Hudson Creek Terminal Station. Commencing as an Assistant System Controller & 12 months later became a trainee Senior System Controller. Before I completed this training 3 months in, I was requested to fill in as the Operations Programming Coordinator & that is where I’ve remained for the past 13 years. Processing, coordinating & approving all the planned access to the Power Networks across the Northern Territory, approximately 190 planned jobs on the Networks come across my desk each month.