Industry News-Platts European Utility Supply Chain Conference,June 22-23

Delegates from across Europe attended the conference in London, chaired by Henry Edwardes-Evans Editor of Platts Power in Europe. The main messages coming through the conference were the significant and timely need for new investment in energy infrastructure not just in the UK but across Europe to replace aging power plant and to achieve a reduction in carbon emissions. Vattenfall’s speakers spoke of their company’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in their Nordic operations by 2030 and across the whole of their business by 2050.

Other issues highlighted during the conference were the management of risk during project development (eg planning, cost, new technology, regulation), the need for consumers to realise that the price of electricity will have to rise and a looming skills shortage in the power engineering industry if steps aren’t taken now to invest in training and people. Whilst acknowledging the obvious challenges facing the energy sector, there was also the recognition at the conference that there are major supply chain opportunities in the current market and these will expand as the UK and the rest of Europe seeks to modernise its energy infrastructure.

Speakers at the Platts Conference included senior executives from National Grid, RWE npower, EON UK, Iberdrola Engineering & Construction, Vattenfall, Microsoft and Danish wave technology company, Wave Star Energy.

Author: Paul Taylor, Taylor Keogh Communications

http://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorkeoghcommunications