EDF Energy is one of the largest energy companies in the UK. They employ more than 11,000 people in the supply gas and electricity to over 5 million customers and are a major generator of electricity. Part of EDFs' power generation facility is Cottam Power Station.

This is a 2000MW coal-fired power station with a capacity to produce up to 4% of the needs of the United Kingdom. The power station is manned by 200 staff, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is situated near Retford in Nottinghamshire.

In 2002, Bob Kilford the Business Services Manager, was given the task of sourcing a robust electronic system that would provide automatic employee and contractor Fire Roll call reporting and employee time recording to meet the requirements of the European Working Time directive. As the site was so large, he required an Ethernet based system so as to reduce cabling costs. Bob researched the Internet and reviewed various companies and systems. He whittled the companies down to three and contacted them with his requirements. After a presentation from Tensor, Bob chose the Tensor WinTA Enterprise system because of the flexibility and ease-of-use of the software.

Tensor installed the system and it was put through it paces in November 2003 when they ran a full site evacuation drill. Bob said “on the whole it was a success. The only problems we had were to do with report formatting and educating site staff on the importance of clocking on and off site. We have four outdoor evacuation points around the site which contain clocks, fire roll call printers and other essential equipment which are easily accessed in any emergency situation.”

This slick set-up allows an easy and fast way to account for all members of permanent staff, contractors and visitors.

There are six "clocking in" points around the site which are connected together via an Ethernet backbone. “The Tensor system has allowed us to monitor costs better as we are now able to record all contractors working time on site. The contract managers use the Tensor system to check contractors hours.” Explained Bob.

“Initially Access Control was not a major factor for us, but since 9/11 it's increasingly important for us to consider security. Within the last six months we have expanded the Tensor system and now Smart Cards control the site entrance barriers, turnstiles and external and internal doors. With the addition of CCTV and higher fences we can now ensure nobody gets onto site without a valid Smart Card. We are currently working with Tensor to trigger automatic photo identification of cardholders and also looking at Automatic Number Plate Recognition of vehicles.” Bob says.

“Tensors' WinTA software allows us to set up flexible access patterns for card holders. For example, our stores area will only allow access to permanent employees and a few nominated contractors. In the near future we will be expanding the system further so that it will also control access to other areas around the site. We are also reviewing Tensors' sub-dermal fingerprint reading system for Switch Room access control, these areas can be particularly hazardous to untrained personnel and access must be carefully managed.”

Bob and his team really use Tensor to it's full capability. They have linked cardholders personnel records from the Tensor Personnel system so that those wanting to gain access to the site have relevant Health & Safety and Training courses recorded and subsequently checked to ensure and they are still &in date&. Bob concludes by saying, “The benefit of Tensor is the ease of seeing whose is here and where they are. Before, we didn't know how many different contractors came to site - we were surprise to find out that it was a lot more than we realised. Now we not only have a record of when they are here, but also their level of training.”

“We are very pleased with Tensor and look forward to expanding the Access Control elements around the site. Tensor have given us options to do things that would have been impossible before we installed their system!”