Year 2012 news
Whilst we tend to focus on glitzy generation and protection, we should remember that we continue to do solid planning and project work for 11 kV distribution in the North West of the UK. This renewal and automation work proceeds at a fairly constant level from within this company and also through a wholly owned subsidiary.
After a slow start to the year, we became suddenly very busy at the end of June. By the year end, we had commissioned 7 new gas turbine generators with a further 4 new generators in progress. We re-commissioned 4 repaired generators on both steam and gas turbine sites in the UK and attended many installations to sort out technical issues on generator and protection control panels. We witnessed Factory Acceptance on power plant such as transformers, generators and switchboards and, in total, we visited 8 countries: India, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Nigeria, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, and Ukraine. The most interesting protection design work that we did was the setting study for a GIS 380 kV substation, and several lower voltage subs, at a new oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. This was state of the art protection involving several relay manufacturers with much duplication of relays and optical fibre communications for reliability and security.
We have increased our technical staff by recruitment and are especially pleased to have back one of our engineers who left four and a half years ago to work with young adults and to do a theology degree.
The Arab Spring is over everywhere except, tragically, in Syria. The whole world seems to be getting back to business installing new electricity generation and accessing fossil fuel reserves, which are increasingly more difficult to access. In recent years, perhaps causing some bemusement, we have written in this annual letter about global warming, carbon dioxide and government policy. We accept that there is little we can do about changing these things. Instead we shall end the year by making a profoundly optimistic statement about future energy reserves. It is a concern to everyone that our sources of energy will last a little longer and so here goes.
Fossil fuels will last for ever and there is, in effect, an infinite reserve. As far as we know, no-one has ever said this and we 
can be fairly sure that virtually everyone will disagree with the statement. Our reasoning is simple. Fuel will get more expensive and as prices increase two things will happen. Demand will fall below the levels that would apply if prices remained the same and we shall find new ways of extracting reserves from the ground that a few years ago seemed far fetched. We have already seen success with fracking for natural gas and extraction of shale oil. These are two examples of how market prices have affected production The figure shown should help to put the situation in perspective for oil and gas. Coal is very abundant and is not shown. We are saying, do not worry about the future but get used to the idea of the cost of energy being even greater than it is today. In the long run alternative fusion energy will be available to us commercially. For this Utopia, estimates vary between 20 and 100 years from now!
The directors of the company thank all our staff and our clients and consultants and friends
for their loyalty and trust during 2012.
We wish them all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
John Sanderson, Director, 17 December 2012