GRID AND NETWORKS - BIOGRAPHIES
ALAN BAKER , CEO – Airtricity Scotland
Alan is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 20 years experience in the power industry.
He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Airtricity Scotland and is based in the company’s Glasgow office. To date Airtricity Scotland has received planning consent for more than 200MW of wind power plant in Scotland including operating wind farms at Ardrossan (24MW) and Braes of Doune (72MW) and two wind farms under construction in Minsca and Dalswinton in Southern Scotland.
Alan is responsible for the development and construction of Airtricity’s wind farms in Scotland.
PANELLISTS
Stuart Easterbrook is the Electricity Customer Manager within National Grid UK Transmission Commercial department. My team are responsible for contracting for all new connections using the GB transmission system as well as maintaining the contractual arrangements with existing transmission users. My most recent previous roles within National Grid have been in the area of transmission charging and I was responsible for developing, consulting and gaining approval for the first set of GB transmission charging arrangements.
Graeme Cooper - BWEA - Head of Grid, Health & Safety and Technical Affairs
Graeme has been with the BWEA since November 2006. Graeme’s background is in the cellular telecoms industry, where he spent 10 years working on all aspects of network rollout and project managing. This ranged from network planning, land acquisition, engineering design, local authority planning, site build, integration and commissioning, upgrading and grid connections. For the last two and a half years he worked at NGW (the wireless arm of National Grid) in the role of National Power Group Manager, where he was responsible for all grid connections to mobile phone base stations and the utilisation of NG Pylons in remote locations for telecoms use.
Graeme’s view is that a lot of his experience is directly transferable to the wind energy business and that indeed, wind now is where telecoms was 10-12 years ago, and having overseen much of that development, he can bring useful ideas and experience to help further the wind and marine renewables sector.
Graeme is focusing on several key issues over the coming months. He will begin with a review and refocus to ensure that BWEA does the best it can for its members, and top of that list will be revitalising the Grid Group and supporting the SRF in Scotland, Wales Grid Group and Offshore Grid group. Also on the agenda will be lobbying government to provide more tools for the industry to help deliver on the promises that government has made on carbon reduction; tackling the onshore grid queue and how to improve the speed to market for onshore grid connections; offshore connections and regulation and responding to the latest round of consultations; working to ensure the right result on transmission capacity with a particular focus on the Beauly–Denny link, as this is absolutely key to a number of projects. The UK wind industry is a world leader in standard setting and regulation of Health and Safety, and Graeme will be focussing on the CDM2007 and Work at Height impacts to the industry and will be driving forward on the production of marine renewable best practice H&S guidelines. Graeme will also continue BWEA’s excellent track record in this area, encouraging the sharing of lessons learnt and a coordinated approach.
Mark Copley is a Senior Manager in Ofgem's transmission team. Mark is an economist by training with a BA and MSc in Economics. Mark's role at Ofgem covers all aspects of transmission access and ensuring that arrangements facilitate the connection of renewable energy to the transmission network. This includes approving plans for network investment, considering how existing arrangements need to be changed to accommodate new technologies and developing ideas to connect the Scottish Island to the transmission grid.
Philip Baker is Technical Director, Electrical Technology at the UK Department of Trade and Industry. In this role, Philip has responsibility for promoting and sponsoring technological developments in the electrical sector and for directing a support programme which aims to facilitate the development and connection of distributed and renewable generation. Philip is also responsible for grid-related issues associated with the development of renewable generation.
Prior to joining the DTI, Philip had a long career in the electricity supply industry and for many years was responsible for managing NGC's Operational Planning activities.
Philip has a Master’s degree in Power Systems Engineering, is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and a Fellow of the IET.
Duncan McLaren joined Friends of the Earth Scotland as Chief Executive in May 2003. He has been an environmental activists, researcher and campaigner for 20 years. The birth of his first child in 2005 encouraged him to campaign even harder for a sustainable future. Duncan is currently also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Joint Research Council’s Energy Programme, and of the FREDS sub-group on renewable heat.
Final session::
Stuart Easterbrook is the Electricity Customer Manager within National Grid UK Transmission Commercial department. My team are responsible for contracting for all new connections using the GB transmission system as well as maintaining the contractual arrangements with existing transmission users. My most recent previous roles within National Grid have been in the area of transmission charging and I was responsible for developing, consulting and gaining approval for the first set of GB transmission charging arrangements.
Jeremy Sainsbury , Natural Power Consultants. Jeremy qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 1995. For the past 18 years, he has been involved in the renewable energy industry at various levels. At an operational level, he has managed three small hydro schemes. He is the Director responsible for Development, Grid and Policy within Natural Power Consultants Ltd, and was the project manager responsible for consenting the offshore Robin Riggwindfarm in the Solway Firth (180MW) and Codling Wind Farm off the coast of Eire (800-1200MW – permitted subject to lease finalisation). On land he has overseen the consenting of over 700MW in the UK, and construction management services of over 180MW
