This week has seen the National Nuclear Laboratory gain a new board member, South East Water bid goodbye to a director of 10 years and Harmony Energy appoint a new chief technical officer.
Utility Week takes a look at some of the movements happening within the industry recently.
National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL)
Iain Clarkson has been appointed as a non-executive member of the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) board.
NNL is a UK government owned and operated nuclear services technology provider.
Until recently Clarkson was chief financial officer of WYG plc, an international consulting, engineering and project management business.
Previously he was finance director for Amec Foster Wheeler’s (Wood Group’s) clean energy business. Prior to that he held various finance director positions in Westinghouse Electric Company, a global nuclear technology provider, including two periods spent working in the United States.
Meanwhile NNL also announced that Claire Flint is re-appointed to the board for a further three-year period from 22 October.
She was formally appointed as a non-executive member of NNL’s board in April 2017, having previously served as an associate non-executive director on the NNL board from 2014 to 2016, under the government’s ‘Women on Board’ scheme.
South East Water
South East Water has announced Tanya Sephton, the company’s commercial director, will replace Steve George as customer service director.
George, who has worked at South East for 10 years, will step down and retire later this autumn.
Sephton said: “I’ve enjoyed working with Steve as a colleague on our executive team and feel privileged to take up leadership of a team that is in such a strong position. It’s an exciting opportunity to build on these strong foundations for the future.”
George began his career in the water sector at Severn Trent, running the company’s call centre operations before branching out into management consulting, where he helped South East set up its customer service centre in 2008. After completing this project, George joined South East Water as customer service director.
South East Water managing director, Paul Butler, said: “Steve joined our team at the merger of Mid-Kent Water and South East Water and was instrumental in bringing our customer service operations back in-house, and creating a brand new customer service centre at the heart of our head office in Kent. Under his leadership this team has gone from strength to strength.
“I want to thank Steve for his support and determination over the years that has led to huge improvements in the service we provide our community. We are proud of our local customer service centre, and, in particular, our focus on ensuring we do the right thing for all our customers, a philosophy Steve has championed.”
Harmony Energy
Harmony Energy, a developer, builder, owner and operator of renewable energy assets in the UK and abroad, has appointed Vijay Shinde as chief technical officer.
Shinde has more than a decade of experience spanning wind, solar and battery storage technologies.
Shinde is an energy storage expert who chairs two of the Renewable Energy Association’s (REA) core groups for policy and standards.
He joins from engineering consultancy Sweco, where he led a grid services team offering technical and regulatory services to clients, advising on a portfolio of more than half a GW of energy storage projects in the UK. He has also worked in consultant engineer and design engineer roles over a career spanning 20 years in energy infrastructure.
He currently chairs the REA’s UK energy storage and large scale power and markets groups and is a member of its distributed energy resources group. He is also a founder member of the power responsive storage working group.
Shinde said: “I’m delighted to have joined a progressive, innovative organisation which is making real inroads across all technologies.
“Harmony has over 500MW of battery energy storage assets construction-ready with another 200MW in planning, representing a significant pipeline of development at a critical time for the UK’s energy supply.
“This is in addition to 14 operational wind sites and approximately 280MW of solar power assets currently in development.
“With the backing of major international investors and the technical expertise of my new colleagues, I am excited by the opportunities going forward.”
UK Power Networks
UK Power Networks has announced it is looking to recruit people to its customer engagement group (CEG) chaired by Ann Bishop.
The CEG is an independent group of cross-sector industry specialists who will challenge and scrutinise the proposals within the network operator’s business plans for the next price control – RIIO-ED2.
Those interested must be able to represent UKPN’s customers and thus have a connection with the company’s three licensed networks in London and the East and South East of England with expertise across areas such as consumer advocacy and stakeholder engagement, regulated sectors (energy or otherwise) and / or knowledge of opportunities around the energy transition.