Year 2020 goes to the history books once again as a special year with its own challenges and achievements. On the other hand, the exceptional circumstances faced due to COVID-19, safety measures taken as well as time spent more intensively and in isolation with the closest family, also forced to think about own life priorities and everyday actions.
Reliable day-to-day operations again in 2020
Reliability at Aurora was at historical high levels. 99.99% availability with average disturbances per connection point < 2 minutes on both sites. A special thanks must go to our operations and maintenance teams, whose work tasks cannot be performed extensively remotely despite exceptional COVID-19 times.
Zero safety incidents leading to absence.
Preventive maintenance task completion rate of 99% despite extraordinary working arrangements.
Network replacement & upgrade investments totaled ca EUR 12 million. Only a small proportion of planned investments were moved forward mainly due to changes in customer shutdown timings. Good planning, project management and co-operation with suppliers and service providers is key to enabling this.
Safety first, however also many development initiatives ongoing
COVID-19 measures taken worked as planned and our personnel stayed healthy and protected. We moved over night extensively to white collar remote work arrangements without larger problems and on-site couplings and maintenance duties continued. We implemented multiple internal development projects aside of normal operations, amongst others network life cycle asset management development and implementation of a data warehouse. Marketing and sales efforts brought along new potential growth opportunities on our existing sites as well as new sites.
Lessons learned to be taken with to 2021
For me this year proved that if necessary, as society we can learn many new things and work together extensively for the greater good also outside of our comfort zones. Perhaps we could develop at greater pace on a societal level, in business and in person every now and then also without being obliged or forced to do so?
On a personal level biodiversity and improving it to slow down global warming became part of everyday life whilst working remotely from the Finnish archipelago. Experiencing the seasonal changes in the sea and taking care of a small kitchen garden gets your hands dirty and eyes open. I must mention that Finland has been a great country to live in also during these exceptional times. When we take small and correct steps in our day-to-day for the good of our local environment, I believe that we can positively impact the future habitats we live in. In fact we must change, but for the sake of improving biodiversity I want to engage in my spare time also without anyone forcing me. At Aurora we work daily with a high potential and proven sustainability catalyst, the electrification of industrial processes. Very well so and great to see our customers are highly committed to industry leading sustainability targets!
I wish our personnel, our customers, suppliers, service providers and other stakeholders a happy and successful new year!
Tony Lindroos
Aurora CEO
