Grid - 'Connecting Europe' - Biographies

Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch - European Coordinator

Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch was born in Hameln/Weser, Germany, in 1947. He worked in various functions in the state's Ministry of North-Rhine Westphalia, eventually as Director-General and Head of the Planning Agency. From 2002 until 2006 he was State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Economics. Appointed by the European Commission, Mr. Adamowitsch endorses the role of European Coordinator to facilitate the implementation of the project "Connections to off-shore wind power in Northern Europe (North Sea and Baltic Sea)" in September 2007.
 

Robert Andris Bankovskis - Associate Director, SQW

Andris has been an Associate Director of SQW based in London since October 2008 where he has directed, managed or contributed to a number of significant projects including long range energy policy, renewable energy investor opportunities and commercial energy related evaluations.

Prior to joining SQW, Andris was Head of Renewable Energy Policy at the Association of Electricity Producers, the leading trade association for the UK electricity market promoting the interests over 95% of UK electricity generation, helping to develop detailed policy positions on reforms to the renewables legislation as well as the proposed EU Energy Directive and the UK’s Renewable Energy Strategy.

Until February 2008, Andris was Head of Renewable Energy Trading and British Energy plc, then the largest generator of electricity in the UK and leading supplier to the commercial and industrial sectors of British business. For seven years Andris ran a renewable energy business involving the acquisition of energy from sustainable sources to meet the demand from British Energy’s customers. He was also responsible for British Energy’s environmental trading regulatory compliance, originating structured trades and executing auctioned trades for sustainable energy and emissions and organising British Energy Trading Ltd’s response to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

For some ten years, Andris was involved in all aspects of the secure supply of uranium and nuclear fuels services at minimum prices to British nuclear stations as well as nuclear liabilities, becoming head of the Uranium Business and Nuclear Liabilities. He was also responsible for a full fuel, waste and decommissioning Due Diligence enabling the successful acquisition of the Bruce Nuclear Reactors from Ontario Hydro in Canada. Andris was variously the United Kingdom’s official delegate to the OECD / IAEA uranium supply and demand group in Paris and an official representative to the Euratom Supply Agency Supply Committee in Brussels.

Andris holds degrees in Physics and Law as well as an MBA.

Mike Barlow - System Manager, Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission Ltd

Mike Barlow is System Manager for SSE's Power Distribution business, which owns the SHETL transmission system in the north of Scotland, and the distribution networks in the south of England and north of Scotland. Mike has worked for many years on renewal and development planning and the capital investment requirements of these networks. Much of his current focus is on accommodating the growth in renewable generation, onshore and offshore, in the north of Scotland, in terms of both new connections and the development of the transmission and distribution networks.

Dr Keith Bell - Senior Lecturer, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde

Dr Keith Bell is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Until he joined the university in 2005, Keith worked in the electricity supply industry in the UK where, among other things, he was involved in strategic transmission system development, a reform of the electricity market, the creation of the GB Security and Quality of Supply Standard and a number of research initiatives concerning system planning and operation. He is a member of the Council of the IET Power Academy and of Study Committee C1 of CIGRE, on System Development and Economics. He is involved in a number of research initiatives in the UK and Europe concerned with new technology to facilitate grid integration of renewable generation and smart grids and works regularly with both industry and government as well as other academics.

Morris Bray - Development Manager, National Grid Offshore

Morris is the Development Manager for National Grid Offshore. An electrical engineer by background who has worked for National Grid since 1991 in power system engineering and commercial management roles before joining National Grid Offshore in 2009 to help develop its offshore transmission business in the enduring offshore electricity transmission regime.

Duncan Burt - Customer Services Manager, Transmission, National Grid

Duncan heads up the Customer Services Team within National Grid, Transmission, and is responsible for new and existing connections to the gas and electricity Transmission networks and also some aspects of charging. Duncan joined National Grid in 2000, having previously worked in the pharmaceutical sector for what is now Glaxosmithkline. At National Grid he initially worked as a power system engineer before moving through a number of commercial and regulatory posts, predominantly focussed on electricity transmission, prior to his current role. He is based in Warwick, UK.

Bob Currie - Operations Director, Smarter Grid Solutions

Bob Currie is a founding member and Operations Director of Smarter Grid Solutions, responsible for technical delivery and strategy. Bob holds a BEng (Hons), MSc and will complete his PhD in 2010, all from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Bob’s interests lie in the areas of power system planning and operation, energy storage systems, dynamic line ratings and the design, build and test of innovative smart grid control schemes. Prior to joining Smarter Grid Solutions Bob was the Scottish and Southern Energy Research Fellow in the Institute for Energy and Environment at the University of Strathclyde and was responsible for the research, development and testing of the ANM scheme for the Orkney Registered Power Zone. Bob participates in various UK and international industry working groups.

Malcolm Garrity - Head of Offshore Wind, Senergy Alternative Energy

Malcolm has been involved in the Offshore Wind industry in the UK since 1999.

He was the Project Manager, on behalf of Eurus Energy, ScottishPower, Elsam and Shell, for the Round 1 Shell Flat project.

With the inception of Round 2 he Project Managed the 500MW West of Duddon Sands project on behalf of Eurus, ScottishPower and Elsam (latterly DONG).

Malcolm also chaired the East Irish Sea Developers Group (EISDG) which brought together all the developers in the Irish Sea to work and collaborate on studies and surveys on a regional basis, resulting in significant savings for the developers involved.

He subsequently joined Eclipse Energy to develop their Wind and Gas Hybrid, Ormonde Project before joining Senergy as Head of Offshore Wind

Simon Harrison - Principal Consultant, Engage Consulting

Simon is a Principal Consultant with Engage Consulting. Since 2006 he has been working as project architect on the SRSM smart metering initiative for the Energy Retail Association in London, where he has worked on requirements, design, communications, standards amongst a range of other key topics. He maintains the Smart Metering Project Google Map, which includes details of over 400 international smart metering projects and has been viewed by 1.4m visitors so far. Prior to joining Engage Consulting he held a number of metering and industry management roles at British Gas for over twelve years.

Matthew Knight - Head of Business Development, Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd

Matthew Knight is Head of Business Development for Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd. Matthew led Siemens entry into the market for designing and building offshore grid connections, winning four out of 5 UK Round 2 projects. Previously Matthew was Operations Manager and established a team to design and build onshore grid substations.

Matthew is a member of the DECC Renewables Advisory Board grid group and Renewable UK's offshore grid and offshore strategy groups. He is also Chair of the IET’s Power Systems and Equipment Technical and Professional Network.

Matthew lives in the New Forest with his wife Sharon and their five children.

Dr Keith MacLean - Policy and Public Affairs Director, Scottish and Southern Energy

Since completing graduate and postgraduate studies in Chemistry at Heriot-Watt and Hamburg Universities, Keith joined SSE in 1994 following a career in Germany and Scotland working in Research & Development and Business Management.

At SSE he has worked in a number of areas of the energy business and was also responsible for starting-up and running its telecoms business from 1997 to 2004. Since 2004 he has been responsible for policy and public affairs.

Outside SSE, he is a Director on the Board of the Scottish Renewables and is also Chairman of the Board at the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy (UKBCSE).

Keith is also a government advisor on renewable energy policy and was appointed to the Renewables Advisory Board in December 2007 and is also a member of the Scottish Government’s Forum for Renewable Energy.

Martin Marais - The Crown Estate

Martin is an ecologist by training with over 20 years experience in environmental impact assessment, planning and project development, including experience in both the consultancy and developer sectors. He has been involved in the energy sector for most of this time and in wind energy development for nearly 15 years. In 2007/08 he spent a year on secondment with the Renewable Deployment team at BERR (now part of DECC) and established the Aviation Plan. Martin is currently one of two Round 3 Development Managers at The Crown Estate managing a team of contract managers who are working with wind developers in delivering the UK's Round 3 offshore wind projects.

Mike McElhinney - Head of Energy Projects, The Scottish Government

Mike McElhinney leads the Energy Projects Unit in the Scottish Government Energy Policy Team, with responsibility for onshore and offshore electricity grid and infrastructure policy issues. Prior to that, he worked extensively across the Scottish Government enterprise department, including working closely with a number of key Scottish industry sectors and in the First Minister’s Office.

He has also worked extensively at policy and operational level in Government across the UK, at Westminster, and in Ministerial offices in both Houses of Parliament. A graduate of Glasgow University, he also holds postgraduate qualifications in management and in business administration.

Tony McNally - Managing Director, Climate Change Solutions Ltd

Tony established Climate Change Solutions Ltd as a not for profit company promoting synergies and partnership to deliver low carbon solutions. ‘Building the Low Carbon Future’ - 20th May 2008 was the 8th Annual Conference delivered by Climate Change Solutions Ltd. Tony has 20 years experience working on environmental technology exhibitions, green shows and conferences with local authorities. His activities contributed to the Pledge to the Planet project leading to and as the central feature at the United Nation Earth Summit, Brazil 1992. Last year Tony organised a series of seminars in the International Global Cities Conference, Lyon and is currently developing a Decentralised Intelligent Energy and Services Network (DIESN) for both the United Kingdom and European Union.

Dr Patrick McWilliams – ISLES Project Manager, The Scottish Government

Patrick McWilliams is manager of the ISLES Project (Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study), an EU-funded collaboration between the governments of Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland that is assessing the viability of accelerating renewable energy development, in the face of significant technological challenges, across a cross-border region. A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, Dr McWilliams has extensive experience of managing research projects and EU programmes, mainly in the humanities and social sciences.

Jeremy Sainsbury - Natural Power

Jeremy is a director of the Natural Power and SeaRoc consultancies which total over 200 people dedicated to Renewable Energy based in 5 UK offices and 5 international , serving the onshore wind, offshore wind, wave, tidal, biomass and PV markets with full life cycle services and products. Jeremy has been in the renewable sector over 20 years with specialism in consenting and grid issues. He has led the NP team in over 2,000 MW of consents including 8 Section 36 consents and 2 offshore projects. Jeremy sits on the FREDS ministerial working group, RAB grid sub group, is SRF Vice Chair , SRF grid group co chair, AEP Scotland Committee and OWIG. He has been involved in major policy developments with planning, marine renewables, grid and small scale development for the past 10 years.