“For the people who protect the grid by pruning trees, mother nature is not practising social distancing"

Spring has not been locked down. In these times of Coronavirus, nature is in full bloom. Plants grow. Tree branches are growing and they risk covering or obstructing many things, including electricity pylons. That electricity that we cannot do without under normal circumstances, let alone if confined to our homes, perhaps while working and with domestic consumption at full capacity. Unlike his other colleagues at Terna who can work from home, the work that 38-year-old Mirko Pedezzi from Valcamonica does is in the field. In other words, in the community.

He is one of the many people who have continued to do their jobs over these past weeks, one of those necessary activities that are not stopped even under the most restrictive measures. For Terna, the company that manages the Italian electricity grid, Mr Pedezzi works at the Brescia Plant Unit, which operates on a roughly 2,400 km grid composed mainly of power lines (covering the entire province, as well as the provinces of Cremona, Mantua and part of Bergamo).

“From November to early April”, explains the skilled line technician (other units take care of the electrical substations), “our job consists almost exclusively of cutting plants which can damage the wires of the pylons. Whether the trees are in public parks or private gardens, it is a very long job, which involves a bureaucratic element for obtaining authorisation and which is obviously carried out by several people”. While continuing on a full schedule, Mr Pedezzi and his colleagues have nevertheless reorganised their work during this emergency caused by the Covid-19 epidemic and they are using all the necessary precautions. The 18 workers from the Brescia Unit have been divided into four teams of 4 to 5 people each, and the teams do not come into contact with each other. In addition, an alternating shift schedule was set up where, each week, half the team works while the other half stays at home, on call in case of emergencies.

“Part of the job,”, explains Mr Pedezzi, “I’d say 60%, is contracted out to two external companies. In those cases, we only have to take them out there and supervise their work. This is what I've been doing in this period. I follow them in my car and we maintain a safe distance. They also wear masks so that they can work safely”. In the meantime, the other three members of Mr Pedezzi’s team (a fifth member is on sick leave due to problems with his back) are also pruning trees, using three separate vehicles. The four team members almost never meet in person: “A quick meet up in the office, but contact is limited to just the four of us”. The pylon grid they are responsible for is one of the longest in Italy and it climbs through mountainous and difficult landscape along the border with Trentino. Sometimes lunch is a quick sandwich eaten on the banks of a stream, an unusual lunch break for those used to working in an office.

“Sometimes, in winter, we have to travel by helicopter”, explains our expert line tech. “But I wouldn’t classify this as dangerous work. Here at Terna, we don’t literally climb up into the trees. That is done by outside companies, and they do it the safest way possible. Their workers use crampons and have been specially trained to climb trees”. In this highly technological era, pruning is still done using “old school” methods, exactly as you would imagine: climbing trees and using chainsaws. All while, a few metres below, life has almost come to a standstill because of the healthcare emergency. Especially in the province of Brescia, one of the hardest hit by the virus: “Two months ago I made arrangements with an elderly landowner to schedule pruning on his land. A few days ago we did the work and I sadly discovered that he had died of coronavirus”.