| Speaker Details |
| Nawaz Ali Head of Currency Strategy Western Union Business Solutions Nawaz Ali is a foreign exchange market strategist and global macro analyst serving corporate and SME clients across Europe. Nawaz has extensive experience in analysing and interpreting global macroeconomic and political developments, and forecasting their impact on exchange rates. As Head of Currency Strategy at Western Union Business, Nawaz is responsible for researching and presenting prescriptive market analysis and FX scenarios, and positioning hedging strategies to support businesses’ FX risk management decisions. His views and opinions on currencies have been regularly quoted in several global media outlets such as Reuters and Bloomberg as well as in national newspapers. | |
| Aage Bjorn Andersen CEO Sea-Lix AS Aage Bjørn Andersen is a MSc. Naval Architect and the CEO of Sea-lix AS. He has spent most of his professional life working in research and development roles with focus on service/ product development and industrialisation in various industrial segments, primarily in the fields of energy and environmental protection. He is also an entrepreneur and has founded and cofounded various companies, including Radical Filtration Ltd., OceanSaver AS, a world-leading supplier of ballast water treatment technologies and MossHydro AS, which supplies industrial high capacity self-cleaning microfiltration systems. Mr. Andersen co-founded Sea-Lix AS in 2013 to continue the development of a novel turbine concept evolved from tidal studies some years earlier. This concept forms the basis for all current Sea-Lix products. | |
| Jane Armstrong Project Manager Yorkshire Water Jane has worked at Yorkshire Water for the past six years as a Project manager, managing over £20 million of capital delivery projects. She is currently project managing the installation of eight fish passes in the Yorkshire region, all to be implemented by March 2020. Jane has a MSc in Environmental Management and has previously focused on renewable technologies. | |
| James Beal Renewable Energy Specialist Department for International Trade James Beal is retained by Department for International Trade as a renewable energy specialist supporting Government activities in delivering inward investment into the UK and working to enable UK based companies to export their renewable energy capabilities overseas. Having previously lead the cross Government Offshore Wind Investment Organisation between 2013 and 2016, James has a wealth of experience in working with key UK and overseas based companies delivering increased value to the UK as a result of the growth of the low carbon agenda. | |
| Sonya Bedford Partner Stephens Scown LLP Sonya is a Partner with Stephens Scown solicitors; a Non-Executive Director at Regen SW; a Director at Exeter Community Energy; is on the board for the Sustainability Institute and the committee for her local branch of the Energy Institute. She is currently undertaking her MSc in Renewable Energy at the Centre for Alternative Technology. Sonya has been involved in a large number of hydro projects including a mill site to power a well-known tourist destination; a run of river community hydro scheme; and advised on technology purchasing contracts and feasibility studies, and led a group of small scale hydro owners through funding and set up. She currently acts for over 20 community energy groups – from set up/funding/site acquisition to development and subsequent generation. With Sonya’s leadership, Stephens Scown’s Renewable Energy team has gone from strength to strength over the last six years, now being responsible for over 500MW of renewable energy projects. | |
| Drew Blaxland Director - Turbines & Engineering Services Atlantis Resources Ltd Drew joined Atlantis in 2007 and brings a wealth of experience to the Atlantis team in the fields of innovation development, business and engineering management, and financial modelling. He has led the technical and commercial development of tidal systems at Atlantis, including being one of the pioneers of subsea installations. Drew has an honours degree in Civil Engineering and an MBA from Bond University awarded with High Distinction. | |
| Mark Bramah Managing Consultant Municipia Mark has worked in local government for 35 years and was a strategic manager at the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) until 2016. He was the architect of and lead officer in developing APSE’s local authority energy collaboration ‘APSE Energy’ involving councils from across the U.K. with the aim of ‘municipalising’ local energy services. Mark set up Municipia providing consultancy support to councils. He is currently working for Robin Hood Energy Ltd, Nottingham City Council’s not for profit energy supply company, and with Asset Utilities Ltd on stand-alone battery storage projects. Mark was the supervisor on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with De Montfort University which developed practical tools for councils to address the challenges of reduced public spending. The project was graded as ‘outstanding’ by the KTP Grading Panel. He is a member of the Renewable Energy Association (REA) and the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA). | |
| Martyn Cowsill Managing Director Microgen Renewables Group Martyn has a thirty year B2B career in marketing covering the establishment of export distributor networks, new product development and research, even though he is only 29. A firm believer in the growth potential for micro hydropower, he has been laughed at by some of the UK's most prominent politicians. He lives in Saddleworth with his wonderful wife and two children. His hobbies include learning to stack the dishwasher properly and running round the house turning all the lights off | |
| Joss Crewdson Hydro Sales Engineer Gilkes Joss is a Sales Engineer for Gilkes focusing mainly on the UK market. The role includes supporting both private and commercial developments and also the supply of hydropower equipment and services to the UK Utilities. Joss studied Mechanical Engineering in Edinburgh, followed by 5 years with Savills, also in Edinburgh, and 10 years in industrial and municipal water and waste water treatment in the UK and also abroad. He joined the Gilkes UK hydro team in late 2015 and has so far been involved in over 60 projects. | |
| Dr Andrew Crossland Energy Storage Engineer Solar Century Andrew is an Associate Fellow at Durham University Energy Institute, Founder at Energy Blogging and Tracking service, MyGridGB, and Energy Storage Engineer for Solar Century. He was awarded "Rising Star" at this year's Young Energy Professional Awards. | |
| Tim Doyle Projects Director KGAL Consulting Engineers Tim has over 30 years' experience in a wide variety of projects and roles from junior positions handling specific portions of a project, through overall management of projects including site management of two large construction sites, to managing a department of Project and Site Managers. He has been the Project Management Director for Andritz Hydro based in the UK, responsible for the completion of a range of hydro power projects, and was the Managing Director of GE Energy (UK) Limited, reporting to the Global Leader of GE’s hydro operations and responsible for the complete re-structuring of the legal entity and its associated assets. These included responsibilities for the global installation of all six GE Hydro locations across Europe, North America and Australia. Previously Tim managed the Contracts Department of Kvaerner Boving (now GE Energy (UK) Limited) with a project portfolio of £75M. | |
| Mary Drury Hydro UK Developments & Projects Manager Innogy Renewables UK Ltd Mary is the vice-chair of the BHA. She is a chartered Mechanical Engineer with great enthusiasm for hydropower. Her 25 years in the industry includes roles at Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon, GE Hydro and RWE, delivering projects from 85kW to 75MW in the UK and abroad. Mary is currently Manager of the Hydro UK Development and Projects team at Innogy Renewables UK Ltd, responsible for both new developments and major refurbishments. | |
| Simon Hamlyn Chief Executive Officer British Hydropower Association Simon, who is a 3-Dimensional Designer by qualification, comes from a family of architects - both parents and his Grandfather. His career has embraced international branded drinks, hotels & leisure, electronic entertainment, magazine publishing, internet businesses and most recently holding senior posts in a variety of membership organisations. He has been at the BHA since January 2014. , Simon is based in Whitchurch, Shropshire, and enjoys, when time permits, a love of music, cricket, football, skiing, walking, running and game shooting. | |
| David Harries Partner Aaron & Partners LLB David Harries heads the Planning, Environmental, Energy and Regulatory practice at Aaron & Partners LLP Solicitors and specialises in renewable energy. Under his leadership, the team acts for developers, land owners, consultants, suppliers and manufacturers, advising on all aspects of renewable energy and all sizes of scheme, including numerous hydro schemes. In the course of doing so, Aaron & Partners LLP has gained a knowledge of the issues of renewable energy installations, which is detailed but rounded and highly practical. In particular, the firm aims to give sound, clear, practical advice, on time and on budget. | |
| Richard Haworth Technical Director Glen Hydro Consulting Ltd Glen Hydro has been involved in the development of small and medium hydro schemes in Scotland since 2009. The Company works as both developers and consultants: designing, permitting and building schemes for clients around Scotland. Glen Hydro has recently been concentrating on maximising the output form their development portfolio. They are now able to use their team of experienced engineers to offer this service to clients. As Technical and Development Director, Richard is responsible for all technical aspects of the schemes and for initial discussions with clients and land owners. Trained as a mechanical Engineer, Richard Gained experience in the petrochemical and construction industries and was a founding Director of Glen Hydro. | |
| David J Henry BSc (Hons) MRICS Director Henry Consulting David Henry is a chartered Quantity Surveyor specialising in providing capital allowances advice to commercial property owners. He established Henry Consulting in the autumn of 2011 following more than a decade working for a leading national capital allowances consultancy. David has worked on a range of hydro schemes including high-head run-of-river, dam storage and projects that use screw generators. In addition to hydro, he has prepared capital allowances claims across a broad cross-section of market sectors, including commercial offices, retail, industrial & distribution, food & drink manufacturing, primary & secondary healthcare, hotels, pubs, nightclubs and restaurants. David also has a keen interest in the development of electric autonomous vehicles though his work with Westfield Sportscars. | |
| Martin Hewitt Technical Director Mott MacDonald Martin is a Chartered Civil Engineer with 30 years' experience in reservoir safety and dam engineering, including considerable experience in the design and construction of hydro-power schemes. He is appointed to the All Reservoirs Panel of engineers established under UK reservoir safety legislation to carry out safety inspection of existing dams and to oversee remedial works, as well as the design and construction of new dams. He worked for SSE on the design reviews and construction supervision of the 35m high dam for the Glendoe Hydro-scheme and is responsible under the Reservoirs (Scotland) Act 2011 for the construction of a number of new reservoirs. | |
| Kenny Hunter Business Development Manager MEG Renewables Kenny Hunter is Business Development Manager at MEG Renewables, a subsidiary of M&Co, one of Scotland’s largest and longest established retail businesses. Kenny is responsible for managing M&Co’s portfolio of renewable investments, including ten solar pv installations and three hydro schemes, and also provides O & M support to a number of third party hydro schemes throughout Scotland. Over the past year, Kenny has been at the forefront of the hydro sector’s lobbying efforts on business rates, engaging specifically with the Scottish Government on behalf of a BHA/Alba/Scottish Renewables working group. Prior to joining MEG in 2011, Kenny had a diverse working career commencing with marketing roles in brewing and financial services, followed by a period in marketing consultancy and culminating with 12 years with Scottish Power. | |
| Bernard Kaufhold Director Re-Imagine Energy Bernard has over 25 years' experience in the power sector as a strategist, financier, investor and developer. A former corporate financier with major investment banks, he has advised on transactions across the UK and Europe. As an investor and developer he has led major power projects from origination to close. With many lifelong interests linked to the ocean, the combination of his power and marine experience provides him with a particular confidence in the future of ocean energy. | |
| Joseph Kidd Vice-Chair Marine Energy Wales Joseph is an experienced development professional with over 15 years' experience in offshore development. He has been at the forefront of the growth of the marine energy sector through initially being involved in the deployment of the world's first commercial scale tidal stream at Strangford Lough for MCT, and then leading the development of what would have been the world's first tidal array at the Anglesey Skerries. He has since supported numerous marine energy developments including the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, Pembrokeshire Wave Demonstration Zone and Morlais Tidal Demonstration off Anglesey. He also jointly managed the establishment of the Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) for Ocean Energy which addresses consenting issues facing the marine sector. Joseph is Vice-Chair of Marine Energy Wales and leads on the development of tidal stream projects in Wales for Nova Innovation Ltd. | |
| Bill Lloyd ACII Director Renewable Risk Advisers Ltd With over 50 years in the Insurance Industry, 20 dealing with renewables of all types, Bill has spent half his insurance career as an Underwriter and the rest as Consultant and Broker. He has worked as Risk Manager for an international renewables developer in Europe, USA, North Africa and the Far East, gaining a wide-ranging knowledge of the renewable energy industry’s challenges and opportunities and extensive awareness of and experience in customer liaison, from turbines to the boardroom. Bill has a technical understanding of the products and their manufacture, including aspects of revenue loss in both construction and operational phase. | |
| Adrian Loening Director Mor Hydro Adrian has worked in renewable energy since 1980 when he was a technician at the Edinburgh University Wave Power Research Group. He has an honours degree in Engineering Design and Appropriate Technology from the University of Warwick. Having worked in the field of solar refrigeration and solar heating, he began working in the landfill gas industry in 1990 and the hydro industry in 2006. He is currently the Managing Director of Mór Hydro Ltd, a technical consultancy and project developer. The Company currently owns (in JV) two hydro schemes in Scotland and has provided technical consultancy on more than 46 hydro projects in Scotland. The Company also provides technical due diligence services to major high street banks and supervises lender interests in micro-hydro schemes. | |
| Bob Long Chief Executive Officer Natural Energy Wyre Ltd Bob is an engineer specialising in thermal energy management. He has many years' experience in delivering turnkey projects with economics and system simplicity at the fore. After many years owning businesses in Africa, he returned to his home town and realised the necessity for help with flood defence, power manufacture and economic and social uplift, by developing the one major asset - Tidal Power. | |
| Chris McKaig Distribution Outage & Emergency Planning Manager Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks Chris has spent the last 10 years working in different areas of the Electricity Distribution business of SSE. His background is as a multi- disciplined Engineer in the manufacturing sector and he has experience in design prototyping mechanical and electrical maintenance. Chris currently works within SHEPD’s control centre in Perth, managing a team of 10 Engineers consisting of 2 Outage Planning Engineers and 8 Control Engineers responsible for the planning and operation of the 11 & 33kV Electrical distribution network for the North of Scotland. His team co-ordinates an outage plan delivering an annual investment spend of circa £290m, as well as maintenance and project works. | |
| Simon Morris Senior Consultant Ricardo Energy & Environment Simon Morris is a senior renewable energy consultant at Ricardo Energy & Environment, with 15 years’ experience in the energy sector. He leads a team of consultants at Ricardo covering a range of areas from policy work and programme management for Governments and local authorities, to project development work for public and private sector clients. Simon moved to distributed generation including hydropower, wind and solar projects five years ago, leading the technical support provided by Ricardo Energy & Environment to the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES). This supports communities through project development, securing finance and construction. He has worked with over 40 projects in that time. Simon’s focus is on innovation in business models such as communities or technology, such as smart grid. | |
| David Mould Senior Hydroecologist JBA Consulting Ltd Dave is a Senior Hydroecologist at JBA Consulting. He was technical lead and project manager for the Yorkshire Water fish pass project. Dave has a PhD from Durham University looking at the hydraulic and ecological impacts of varying compensation flows from reservoirs. Subsequently, he has worked at JBA for 10 years working on a range of fish pass design, river restoration, hydroecological impact assessment and fisheries habitat modelling studies. | |
| Kieran O'Gorman Technical Partner Deepbridge Capital Kieran is the Technical Partner at Deepbridge Capital LLP, with responsibilities covering compliance oversight over a wide-range of roles including dealflow sourcing, deal structuring, product origination, and the development and execution of asset and investee company funding strategies. Over a career of 25 years, Kieran has been involved in capital markets fundraising, as well as investment and asset management, across a number of industry sectors including renewable energy, life sciences and disruptive technology. | |
| Tom Oaten Co-Founder & Design Lead Stroom Energy Tom (Co-founder and Service Designer), Interaction Designer at the Satellite Applications Catapult, leverages design as a tool to make technical projects more accessible for everyone to understand. With a BA in Sustainable Product Design, he has ventured into many ideas of what sustainability is and implemented these ideas into his products. His projects have always developed along a practical, methodical & conceptual route focused on social needs. Tom is particularly interested in social sustainability and how education fits within that. | |
| Olly Paish Director Derwent Hydroelectric Power Ltd Oliver is a Mechanical and Hydraulic engineer with over 20 years’ professional experience in the research, design, and project management of hydropower systems, in both the UK and developing countries. He has been a director at Derwent Hydro Developments Ltd since 2003, working on the consenting and detailed design of small-scale hydro schemes throughout the UK. He wrote the Guide to UK Mini-Hydro Developments available on the BHA web-site. | |
| Anoop Pandey Co-Founder and CTO Stroom Energy Anoop (Co-founder and CTO), Geospatial Information Specialist and Earth Scientist at the Satellite Applications Catapult, focuses on the exploitation of satellite data for GIS based applications. He has a strong interest in developing sustainable energy solutions for communities and with a Master’s degree in Petroleum Geosciences and experience in the oil and gas industry he brings a unique perspective on sustainable energy generation. | |
| Judith Patten MBE Project Director All-Energy Judith is the co-founder and Project Director of All-Energy, the UK's largest renewables show, held annually in Glasgow (2-3 May 2018). the conference is her particular responsibility and with ten parallel streams it sets out to cover all forms of renewable and sustainable energy (the BHA puts together the hydro session, working with the organisers and using suggestions submitted in response to the call for papers as well as invited speakers) and energy efficiency/management, and it also has special sessions for community schemes and the farming/landowning community that are of particular interest to BHA members. The Call for Papers is open until just prior to the Christmas break and can be found on the All-Energy website at www.all-energy.co.uk - now's the time to make your submission! Total attendance over the two days of All-Energy 2017 was 7,570; there were some 400 exhibiting companies (hydro exhibitors very welcome) and an equal number of speakers. | |
| Tom Pendrey Principal Mechanical Engineer, Hydropower Mott MacDonald Tom graduated with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering with Management Techniques from the University of Edinburgh. He has worked on renewable energy and hydropower projects for more than 10 years. He is now a Principal Mechanical Engineer working for Mott MacDonald Ltd, where he specialises in mechanical aspects of hydropower as well as project management. Tom has worked in a number of countries including South Africa, Zambia, Singapore and China, as well as living in Vietnam for one year for erection and commissioning of a 156MW hydropower project. | |
| Alex Reading Development Director Green Highland Renewables Alex was one of the first employees at Green Highland Renewables (GHR) and has been instrumental in growing the business into one of the UK’s leading hydropower developers. Within GHR, Alex is responsible for the appraisal and development of GHR’s portfolio of hydro projects. Prior to joining GHR, Alex served for seven years as an Infantry Officer in the Black Watch. During his time in the British Army he served in Germany, Iraq and Northern Ireland. He holds an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from Newcastle University. | |
| Richard Rees Managing Director North wales Hydro Power Richard founded North Wales Hydro Power in 2011, the Company has gone on to establish 25 hydro schemes of up to 100kW in output and has ownership of 11 of those projects. The Company is currently working on consenting and constructing projects for clients, and maximising output and performance from the existing operational schemes. Richard is also heavily involved with Volta Energy Storage, which is developing multi-MW standalone battery storage schemes, This Company has 18MW of consented projects with a further 30MW in the pipeline. | |
| Manjit Saggu Coastal Protection Engineering Manjit's connection with the ocean stems from his qualifications in Marine Electronics. His knowledge of radio communications and radar came in useful as computers became mobile, hence the connection with Compaq and IBM. Innovative thinking led to his involvement with the IBM patent regarding what was soon to become known as "Smart" phones. Manjit loves moving concepts to reality via prototypes and has project managed various large concepts to market. He also enjoys building Drag race cars - and actually racing them. | |
| Mark Stanway Director Aquaspira Mark has worked in the pipeline and drainage industry for 27 years, with experience ranging from small diameter pressure pipe through to very large diameter sewer, stormwater and hydro pipeline systems. | |
| Carol Thomas Community Hydro Project Manager Dalavich Hydro Carol had a long career in Supply Chain Management, Business Development, and Business Consultancy before moving to Dalavich. She is an experienced Project Manager, having worked in both the Electronics and Nuclear Pharmaceutical industries, and she has delivered many cross-functional, high profile projects, both as an employee and as a Consultant. Carol is now putting those skills to use as the Community Hydro Project Manager, helping to ensure that a tiny rural community in the depths of Argyll has been able to bring this challenging hydro project to fruition and overcome all the barriers associated with grid curtailment. | |
| John Twomey Head of GB & EU Commercial Strategy National Grid John has been working for National Grid for the last 13 years, primarily within the System Operator function of the business. John was accountable for the delivery of all offshore wind connections between 2008-2012 and helping to implement the competitive OFTO framework. From 2012-15 John undertook a role managing all connections to the National Grid across Scotland. This role required strong engagement with the hydro sector in facilitating plans for future connections. John is now Head of GB & EU Strategy for National Grid System Operator and his role includes the approach for BREXIT and developing commercial initiatives to maximise the connection of new energy projects. | |
| Charles Ward Head of Route to Market New Stream Renewables Charlie has been involved in financial/commodity markets since 2001. From 2005 he worked as a Fund Manager for a London based Multi-Family Office with a keen focus on renewable development and optimisation. In 2013, Charlie joined New Stream Renewables and is now responsible for New Stream's PPA tendering service for both short and long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). | |
| Roger Woods Development Director Tidal Lagoon Power Tidal Lagoons represent a new asset class in hydro energy; delivering a new application for proven marine hydro technology and offering renewable energy at scale. Tidal Lagoon Power’s (TLP) mission is to develop, construct and operate a fleet of tidal lagoons in UK and international waters, driving a critical change in the energy mix of those countries with accessible tidal range. Roger is Development Director on TLP’s UK future lagoon programme including the company’s second project, Cardiff Tidal Lagoon. | |
| Marc Wynn Managing Director Asset Utilities Ltd Marc specialises in grid connection and his Company, Asset Utilities Ltd, has made over 22,000 grid connections, saving its clients over £20m. Previously Marc was the Development Director for Premier Hotels plc with responsibility for finding sites and building hotels for two major brands, where one of his biggest challenges was obtaining and delivering the utility connections at time when the utility market was de-regulating. Marc formed Asset Utilities because he knew by moving the ownership of the pipes and cables from the host utility companies to other companies, he could generate an ‘asset payment’ for the developer, substantially reducing the connection cost. In the last 3 years, Asset Utilities has worked almost exclusively for local authorities, providing strategic advice and grid connection services for renewable and battery projects. In August 2016, Marc formed the G1 Battery Storage Group which has been hosting free events for its 40 local authority members. | |
