Following its acquisition of Ireland’s Gridconnect last month, PSC has acquired power system experts from Ramboll UK, bringing with it more than 20-years’ industry experience per employee, on average, strengthening PSC’s European presence and providing its clients additional expert resources.
Utilities are experiencing an unprecedented period of disruption as a multitude of forces reshape the industry. The growing call to decarbonize and the challenge of connecting increasing amounts of renewable distributed energy resources, like EVs and solar PV, is an ongoing priority. Renewable power has grown to account for more than 33 percent of the world’s total installed power generating capacity. And in the UK specifically, in the third quarter of 2019 – for the first time ever – renewables generated more electricity than fossil fuels.
Amid an industry in significant transition to contend with such challenges, mid-sized consultancy firm PSC helps its electric utility clients deploy, manage, and maintain power system solutions to deliver clean, reliable, efficient, safe and affordable power to their customers. PSC’s regional capacity is doubled through the acquisition of Gridconnect, and now by onboarding senior specialists from Ramboll UK., PSC UK is now better positioned as active agents in the evolution toward the grid of the future. The power system experts from Ramboll bring deep and complementary experience to PSC in owner’s engineer services, power system feasibility studies, technical due diligence, regulatory consultancy services, and project management.
“We are thrilled to welcome the members of the Ramboll UK Power Systems team to PSC. The combined team significantly augments PSC UK’s capacity and provides the UK, European mainland, and Middle East markets a strong compliment of electricity experts to address electrical engineering, HVDC, operational technology, and market system needs,” said Alex Boyd, PSC Group CEO. “With the acquisition of Gridconnect last month and now with the experts from Ramboll UK’s Power Systems team, we are actively addressing the need for a strong medium-sized electricity specialist option available to our clients in these regions.”
PSC UK now has regional offices in London, Newcastle and Warwick, UK; Dublin Ireland; and Ludvika, Sweden. The team delivers expertise in planning, analysis, development and strategic advisory to utilities and energy companies in the region (UK, European mainland and Middle East) via its 34 electricity experts, making PSC globally more than 180 strong.
Gary Landels, Head of Ramboll’s Power Systems department in the UK added, “We have been impressed by the quality of PSC UK’s work and their commitment to client satisfaction. In that way, they are a great fit with our team. This transaction allows us to continue to serve our clients with the excellent quality they expect while significantly increasing capacity and broadening available expertise.”
As of 1 February 2020, all staff from Ramboll’s Power Systems department in the UK joined PSC UK with Gary Landels now leading the Power Networks division of PSC UK. Read on for short bios of the team members below.
Richard Adams
Richard Adams is a Principal Engineer with almost 30 years of experience in the design and application of protection relays and systems at all voltages up to 500kV. He is an active member of CIGRE, culminating in his appointment as Secretary of Study Committee B5 (Protection and Automation) in 2018. Richard is authorized to NGET TP141 for the preparation and checking of protection settings on the National Grid transmission system.
Eric Bainbridge
Eric Bainbridge is a Principal Engineer with over 30 years of experience in transmission, distribution, generation and industrial power system protection and electrical engineering. Eric’s experience includes substation primary and secondary equipment, design engineering and commissioning of international and UK projects on behalf international and national power utility clients.
Graeme Hutchison
Dr Graeme Hutchison is a Principal Electrical Engineer and has been involved in numerous projects relating to power system planning, investment appraisal, privatization and regulatory studies, system operations and security. This includes transmission and generation connection studies covering dynamic, transient stability and reactive compensation studies. Graeme has been the project manager for several regulatory compliance audits.
Steven Jacques
Steven Jacques as Chief Engineer has been responsible for the design and construction of various international transmission and distribution substations. In an engineering consultancy role, he has been responsible for project management and preparation of technical specifications for primary and secondary plant, detailed design of various substation configurations, undertaking design verification/assurance and program management. In a design leadership role, Steven has been responsible for teams of multi-disciplined engineers implementing numerous transmission projects.
Gary Landels
Gary Landels is the General Manager of the PSC Power Network Group in the UK and has over 17 years of experience in electrical power system analysis of transmission, distribution and industrial networks, having performed steady state and dynamic performance studies as well as power quality assessments and Grid Code compliance studies for generation connections.
Steve Nutt
Steve Nutt is Chief Engineer and has over 35 years of experience in power system operations and planning. He has a wide range of knowledge in operating and planning transmission systems, computer modelling, power system economics and experience in solving complex power system issues. Steve has been involved in the development of security standards and grid codes to enable the connection of renewable generation and has also completed compliance checks for renewable generation.
David Bailey
David Bailey is a Principal Consultant with 40 years of experience in assessing electrical power system requirements and detailed design and operational studies at all voltage levels. David has significant experience in the application of static VAR system (SVS) equipment for power systems and the design and use of special protection systems and other power system controls and associated application techniques.
Miriel Garcia
Miriel Garcia is a Graduate Engineer with the Energy team at PSC in the Newcastle office after she completed a Master’s Degree in Power Distribution Engineering at Newcastle University. Her projects have included technical due diligence for a transmission system operator, ancillary services analysis, an integrated energy strategy and a transmission capability statement review.
Michael Hook
Michael Hook is an Electrical Engineering Consultant working in the electricity transmission and distribution sector. His experience includes transmission, distribution and HVDC projects, and he has significant experience in renewable energy connection design, earthing systems, offshore wind and software modelling of power systems.
Neil Keeler
Neil Keeler is a Senior Power Systems Engineer and his areas of expertise include specification, design approval, performance evaluation and tender adjudication for major substation projects both in the UK and abroad. Neil’s more recent experience includes power system analysis with a focus on fast transients and insulation coordination, transmission and distribution network investment, detailed substation design and technical due diligence and auditing.
Scott Murray
Scott Murray is a Senior Engineer with significant experience in undertaking employer’s representative (Owner’s Engineer) and project management roles on behalf of clients within the HVDC interconnector and offshore wind sectors. Scott recently undertook the project management role during subsea return cable installation work on a HVDC Interconnector project. He also has experience in the conceptual design of offshore array cable circuits, overhead transmission lines (up to 220kV) and onshore substations.
Daniel Randles
Daniel Randles is a Senior Electrical Engineer with experience in power systems that is mainly focused on power systems analysis and protection applications. This includes protection settings and grading studies, protection scheme design and relay configuration for both transmission, distribution and industrial substations, installation and commissioning of protection control schemes, to writing protection standards and application policies.
Nick Randles
Nick Randles is a Chartered Electrical Engineer with 36 years’ experience in the power sector. He has been engaged in engineering consultancy, with progression from technical engineering roles through to project management, corporate management and technical direction. His specialist expertise is in the areas of network development and power system protection, with an emphasis on scheme development in regulated environments. Nick has also been the Project Director or Project Manager on a variety of power transmission and distribution projects.