G4S has a customer in the energy sector that primarily deals in the oil and gas industry, but it also has solar farms in Asia. While the customer is highly successful, it has not been immune to the challenges of today’s geopolitical climate.

With the “green energy” initiatives across the world, it’s understandable that companies primarily reliant on fossil fuel energies would feel financial pressure. Not only are there financial concerns with the push for clean energy, but there are also the challenges presented by activists that frequently target companies in the oil and gas industry. The customer also experienced multiple nighttime raids by high-profile offenders on its Asia solar farms. This presents an additional challenge to overcome, as the company’s efforts for lowering emissions and providing clean energy solutions are also under attack.

Before engagement with G4S, the customer had tried to put an end to the solar farm night raids by enhancing the perimeter fencing, installing cameras and increasing its patrol headcount. However, these efforts proved unsuccessful due to the large coverage area and the fact that these raids occurred in hard-to-reach areas in the dark.

The Goals

Due to the extreme challenges in today’s energy sector, the customer required G4S to be highly flexible. Since the customer’s revenue could be heavily impacted by the push to move away from fossil fuels, security services would need to be able to quickly pivot as the market changes. This means cutting costs during critical times and providing an immediate response if the facilities are attacked by activists.

It was also an essential objective for the customer to maintain its overall positive reputation and continue to work toward its goal of zero incidents, fatalities, or life-changing injuries. The customer places a high emphasis on worker welfare for both its direct employees and its contractors.

In its Asia location, the customer had been rapidly growing its field and business operations, so it needed a trusted security partner that could adapt quickly to changes in this area. The primary goal here would be to put an end to the night raids that had been actively occurring. This was vital both for financial purposes and for the safety of everyone working at this site.

The Solution

With the solar farm night raids being a major concern, G4S took swift action to resolve this issue. By utilising the G4S Academy Threat Radar Assessment Tool, the team was able to reevaluate the risks at the site and propose best-fit security solutions to enhance protection at an optimised cost.

G4S worked with the customer’s contract holders and a security manager to set up a task force for this site. This included mobile patrols in vehicles for surveillance. Patrol employees were equipped with digital single-lens reflex cameras with long-range detection lenses, plus FLIR thermal binoculars. They also used an intel analyst who communicated with drone operators to guide the onground guarding patrols. These systems would combat the solar farm night raids. G4S also implemented company-wide systems to help meet the customer’s additional goals. The components of this solution included:

• Account management
• HSSE management system with incident and intervention reporting dashboard
• Worker welfare and sustainability plans
• Online customer portal to collect KPI scores
• Contract assurance and self-audit programmes
• Online learning and training library

With these elements in place, G4S was confident it would meet the customer’s expectations.

The Results

The solar farm night raid task force was deployed in December 2021. Since then, there have been no theft incidents recorded at this site.

The customer has expressed overall satisfaction with G4S’s performance across the board, particularly the account management levels that include custom web applications developed by the global team. In its Asia market, the customer appreciates reliable and proactive management during the many health, weather and resourcing constraints. The patience of guards along with their flexibility and willingness to take on additional shifts during the most challenging times shows an extremely high level of commitment.