Year 2016 news
Our 27th year was not bad at all. By the year’s end, we had completed commissioning on 12 new generators and attended to many others for maintenance, refurbishment and to deal with such things as protection, excitation and synchronising issues. Most were Gas Turbine Generator sets and some included commissioning of switchgear and integration of the generator into existing systems. Our work was in 9 countries – Ghana, Greece, India, Italy, Libya, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia and UK.
We commissioned only one new transformer, at 132 kV. We continued to provide power system study work for numerous clients and have provided consultancy on larger projects. Most recently this included being involved in the design of a new generator station complex for Leeds General Infirmary and University. We carried out lightning strike risk assessments for three separate anaerobic digestion plants in the UK for a new customer. We continued to extend our customer base and increase the scope of work taken on. We investigated transformer faults at a large power station in Kent UK and at an energy from waste plant in Birmingham. We enjoy doing fault investigations, though there is not a lot of income from it. We received a number of enquiries about problems with armour current in HV cables, see picture, because we have the only well- tested computer program available for free use. See our website.
The political landscape in the UK and worldwide is fascinating to us and we have observed it closely. This year, prime ministers and presidents have fallen by the fistful. Mr Junker of the EU looks likely to survive. The UK outlook is bright and we see nothing adverse for our company with Brexit.
We continue to despair about the way our government handles our electricity supply. National Grid Company do their best but our opinion is still that we would be better off with more distributed generation. We watch the website http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ which shows electricity demand and generation updated every few minutes. The annual maximum demand occurs between 1600 and 2000 usually in the middle of the last week of January so that is the time to watch. The present demand on a damp but mild day in early December 2016 is 49 GW, which is 10% higher than the peak last winter. Below from Gridwatch
The captain of a ship in the English Channel dropped his anchor during a storm last month and wrecked one of our electricity links with mainland Europe. The French nuclear inspectorate has closed temporarily several power stations. The happy times when we imported lots of electricity from France have gone and we are now at serious risk if the wind stops blowing. At our company, we shall be OK because we have our own generator to switch on when the supply fails. We recommend that everyone should
buy one and, most important, that they test it and rehearse the changeover.
The directors of the company thank all our staff and our clients and consultants and friends for their loyalty and trust during 2016.
We wish them all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
John Sanderson, Director, 6 December 2016