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Hydro - Biographies
George Aggidis – Director Renewable Energy & Fluid Machinery Group, Lancaster University
George Aggidis FIMarEST, FEI, FIMechE, FIET, is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at Lancaster University and Director of Lancaster University Renewable Energy Group & Fluid Machinery Group.
In industry he has worked abroad and for Mather & Platt, and Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon in the UK. His main research interests include renewable energy development specifically hydro power, marine and fluid machinery. He is a lead partner on the EPSRC Supergen Marine research consortia, and principal investigator on the Joule Centre for Energy Hydro Resource Model Project and the WRASPA Wave Energy Convertor Research Awards.
He has research, design, development and patent contributions in the field of fluid machinery, and renewable energy, developed turbines for hydro power generation projects and has physical research prototypes of fluid machinery operating successfully worldwide, and a number of patents for power generation fluid machinery.
He is Board member of the IMechE Fluid Machinery Group, a Board of Governors member of the Joule Centre for Energy, Member of the British Hydropower Association (BHA), Founding Member of the European Union Ocean Energy Association (EUOEA) and Founding Chair of the North West Tidal Energy Group (NWTEG).
Peter Amler - Vice President Product Group Balance, Plant Andritz Hydro GmbH & Co
Peter Amler graduated in Electrical Power Engineering and joined ANDRITZ HYDRO (former ELIN) in 1981. Initially he worked over 10 years as commissioning engineer for many hydro power projects worldwide. From 1991 he gained experience as senior project and sales manager. The actual position is Vice President of the Product Group "Balance of Plant" of ANDRITZ HYDRO.
Chris Brett - Associate Director, Inter Hydro Technology
Chris has been a Hydro Engineer since 1994, including six years as Hydro Sales Manager with Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd. He is responsible for providing mechanical and electrical engineering input to projects being studied and managed by Inter Hydro Technology / R G Parkins & Partners Ltd. Chris has a wealth of experience in small hydro gained from travelling world wide specifying appropriate solutions to project developers and providing input to economic analysis of small hydro projects.
Neil Lannen - Development Manager, SSE
Neil Lannen is a Chartered Civil Engineer with 20 year experience in the water industry, the last 12 years of which have been dedicated solely to Hydro Power. Following periods in operations and maintenance and major projects construction Neil is now the Development Manager for SSE Renewables with responsibility to identify, develop and construct new hydro assets to increase the companies portfolio.
Jamie O'Nians - Head of Marine, IT Power
Jamie O'Nians is the Head of Marine at IT Power. He is a mechanical engineer with wide ranging experience in the hydro and marine energy sectors. He has considerable experience in technology research and development, project management and commercialisation of technologies and a track record of securing additional support for such projects. He has successfully undertaken several R&D projects within hydro and marine and has provided technical services to several of the leading marine technology developers. Jamie also sits on the British Hydropower Association Council.
Marc invented the Pulse Tidal concept in 1998 and has led the development of the technology. He has formed the technical partnerships needed, raised equity finance and secured grants to enable construction of a 100kw demonstration machine in the Humber Estuary, UK. He is an Environmental Science graduate, with a background in Physics.
Calum Robb – Hydro Developer, Scottish and Southern Energy
A qualified mechanical engineer with 10 years experience in the hydropower sector, having been involved throughout the lifecycle of small and medium hydro projects around the world.
Main expertise in hydroelectric generation plant selection, design and operation, but also heavily involved in policy and planning issues.
In my role as Hydro Developer I am responsible for delivering consented hydro projects to a dedicated construction team.
Current projects with which I am involved are the Chonais, Chaorach and Kildermorie hydro projects, the Sloy pumping station and new pumped storage developments.
Iain Robertson - Business Development Manager, Scotland, Smartest Energy
- BEng (Hons) Environmental Engineering and Postgraduate Diploma Energy Systems & the Environment from the University of Strathclyde; CIM Diploma in Marketing.
- With SmartestEnergy since January 2008, as Business Development Manager (Scotland), to further develop the company’s power purchase business with the independent renewable generation sector, dealing with generators from 50kW to 500MW. Hydro is a significant part of this business.
- Held previous roles with ScottishPower in Energy Trading, Technical Services and Metering Services, and with the University of Dundee and University of Glasgow in international development.
Graham Stein - Technical Development Manager, System Technical Performance, National Grid
Graham Stein graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He then spent over a decade in network operations at National Grid in a number of roles including contingency planning and the development of operational policies. Graham went on to work for National Grid on the Transmission Price Control Review before playing a leading role in the development of the transmission frameworks for the new offshore transmission regime. He currently leads the technical development team within National Grid's Asset Management division, looking after Grid Code, transmission system performance and generation integration issues.
John Strettle - Production Manager, Cruachan (Pump Storage) Power Station
John worked for Pilkington Brothers for a number of years before moving to the Electrical Supply Industry, where he has spent the last 25 years.
A period of 4 years working with the National Nuclear Corporation at Torness Nuclear Power Station. John worked in the joint SSEB/NNC Computer Construction Team, during the construction and commissioning phase of the Power Station build.
For the last 21 years John has worked at Cruachan Power Station. Initially starting employment with the North of Scotland Hydro Electric board before transfer to ScottishPower. John has gained a wealth of experience while undertaking a variety of Engineering and Management roles, at Cruachan, including that of the Technical Engineer, Teams Manager, Shift Control Engineer, EC&I Engineer and Production Engineer.
John is married with two grown up children.
David Williams - Chief Executive Officer, British Hydropower Association
David Williams has been the Chief Executive of the British Hydropower Association (BHA) since January 2006. The BHA is a trade association with members active in all aspects of hydropower and its main aims are to promote and assist the development of hydropower in the UK and support UK companies in their bid to work overseas.
Previously he was seconded to UK Trade & Investment (the UK Government overseas trade support agency) as an Export Promoter for Hydropower In this position he assisted export business and promoted companies in the hydropower sector. In 2004 he was also appointed as a Visiting Professor to the University of Edinburgh.
From 1964 to 1995, he worked for Gilbert, Gilkes & Gordon Ltd., manufacturer and supplier of water turbine generating equipment, ultimately as Manager of the Hydro Division overseeing sales and marketing for the Small Hydropower market worldwide.
He then established and managed a regional office for Gilkes in Kuala Lumpur covering South and South East Asia. He was elected as a Council Member of the BHA in 2000 and is on the Editorial Panel of the journal “Hydropower and Dams”.
