It’s difficult to accept that I’m reaching the end of my working life! Spanning over 4 decades I’ve had the privilege to work for four bastions of the North East economy ranging from manufacturer, to consultancy, to infrastructure owner to research organization. To be part of such a rich engineering heritage has been both life enriching and truly humbling.
It began in 1980, the charts were topped by The Jam and David Bowie and Newcastle had Chris Waddle on the wing and Alan Shoulder (a hero from Blyth Spartans famous FA cup run) up front! I started that year with NEI Parsons on Shields Road as a Student Apprentice – part of a team of 7,000 (worth a pause for thought) manufacturing the best Steam Turbines in the world! My first assignments rather prophetically were in the research department and test department! But I soon realised I preferred being out of the office and on site. My first proper job was at Drax Power Station – then Europe’s largest Coal Fired Power Plant. I remember being met on my first day by Greenpeace, who’d scaled the cooling towers to protest about the Acid Rain emitted from power stations, caused by the high sulphur content of the coal. What progress we’ve made!
A few years in Singapore followed, where I learned a great deal from some of the best construction and commissioning engineers you could ever wish to meet. I also enjoyed the most active of social lives ever being selected for a Malaysian Football team to play in the inaugural Singapore Premier League!
NEI Parsons Team of 1987!
On my return to the UK, after a few years in Projects with NEI I joined Merz & Mclellan, a world-renowned, 100 year old, power consultancy who’s business relied solely on the intellect and knowledge of it’s staff. In a time which predated engineering software I learned a great deal, particularly how to solve complex problems through equally complex partial differential equations! The UK workload was shaped heavily by the Privatisation of the electricity system and the ‘Dash for Gas’. This was the advent of the non-recourse financed power plant and throughout the 1990’s over 15GW of combined cycle power plant was installed, but sadly little was manufactured in the UK. In fact almost all of the technology was imported from Europe, Japan or the US. Whilst it delivered low-cost energy to the customer and helped to reduce our carbon emissions the economic activity in the UK was limited to a bit of construction and advisory services. This was a salutary lesson for me.
Following a moratorium on new gas fired power stations a major power project in the Middle East provided a huge technical challenge and a great cultural education.
I later moved to Tyne and Wear Metro to test myself in a completely different sector. What a privilege to work on such iconic infrastructure, part of the very fabric of the North East. My days were filled with upkeep of rolling stock, maintaining Victorian infrastructure, critical tunnels under the city centre, building new stations, refurbishment of old stations and procuring ticket machines with touch screens that could accept notes and cards (yes you can blame me!)!
The greatest achievement though was a trip to London, to the DFT and the Houses of Parliament to convince the then Minister to quadruple the annual investment in the aging system to help fund Metro Re-invigoration.
And so to Blyth, a return to power generation and the start of our transition to Renewables on an industrial scale. A strategic investment by the Government of the day in applied research infrastructure designed to accelerate the evolution of the technology, to reduce the cost of energy and to bring about early investor confidence.
Without question the biggest engineering challenge of my career. We were pioneers entering unchartered territory. The largest commercially available turbine was 3MW and we were constructing test rigs designed to overload a 10MW turbine. It required a single team ethic of the highest order everyone was prepared to go the extra mile from designer, to engineer, to Project Manager, to construction team, to researcher. Such was the collaboration, the partnership, the teamwork that no problem was unsolvable, no obstacle insurmountable , no challenge too great. Our approach won us national recognition even topping the construction team from London’s Shard during a memorable night at the Grosvenor!
Once constructed so began the task of delivering the much needed impact – reducing the time to market of game changing technology, driving societal benefit from low-cost, low carbon electricity, delivering economic growth by supporting businesses with product development, attracting foreign direct investment and most importantly providing the inspiration for generations of young engineers.
Just as another Blyth Spartan hero inspires another great Cup run it is time to draw my career to a close and let those with the energy and curiosity to pick up the mantle.
Thank you to everyone who I’ve had the pleasure to work with, to those that have taught me, mentored me, supported me, counselled me and tolerated me throughout my career, it’s been a blast and a privilege.