Not content with our expansion into England and Wales, Blackhall and Powis is growing its operations internationally too.
It’s an exciting time with the business developing in a number of areas, but the appointment of a Director of International Development and a Director of Research, along with the establishment of our new office in the UAE, marks a big step in our strategic mission to support the energy and infrastructure both at home and abroad.
Coming on board to head up our international operations is the highly experienced and well-connected Pete Gettinby, formerly of RSK.
Pete’s extensive experience in the green energy and infrastructure sector, combined with his detailed knowledge of the overseas market, will be a huge asset to our business and our clients.
Having worked for the last few years in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Pete brings with him a wealth of established contracts and potential projects. Already based in Dubai, over the last 12 months he’s helped identify over £350million of potential projects in the region.
Pete is joined by David Cooper as Director of Research. David has an extensive geospatial and interdisciplinary background, having completed his PhD in geosciences from the University of Edinburgh and teaching on their master’s programme in Geographical Information Science. David has published research utilising environmental modelling across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, drone surveying within Eurasia, and zoological analysis within the UK.
David has worked with Blackhall & Powis for a number of years, implementing bespoke GIS models for the renewable energy sector and leading international interdisciplinary research projects for our clients.
Cementing our overseas presence is a progressive step from the international projects we already completed or have underway in Iraq, the USA, Africa and Malaysia.
We’ll be offering all of our core services to international clients and projects with a particular focus on geospatial services and marine and offshore infrastructure support. We have identified a need for the creation of spatial data in difficult to access, hazardous, and data-deficient environments, and are therefore offering satellite remote sensing integration into our geospatial workflows.
In addition to growing our own operations overseas, we’ll be offering external consultancy services to support international development for other businesses in the energy and infrastructure sectors.
This will make use of the excellent network Pete has already established. In particular, strong links to the Energy Industries Council and Scottish Development International, both of which provide great support to our industry.
Pete said: “This is the right progressive step to take the offering and experience of B&P further afield and to use our expertise and contacts to help other companies who are looking for these services in this booming region. I’m excited to grow B&P internationally and to help other businesses in our sector grow.”
B&P’s growth across England and Wales continues with an expert new service to support the delivery of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).
We’re enhancing our already deeply skilled team with the expertise of a new team with a wealth of experience leading Development Consent Orders (DCOs) on major projects in England and Wales.
In the last six months, we have recruited a team of key individuals and well-known industry faces, bringing decades of experience in energy and infrastructure projects to boost our resources and skills to support projects across England and Wales. Two of those who have joined the team include Gill Froud and Jake Laws. Recruitment will continue over the coming months, with further highly experienced team members also coming on board.
This has significantly strengthened our team in England and Wales with a range of expertise in this area, including land officers, land referencers, surveyors and planning experts. The team’s experience and extensive knowledge of the DCO process and delivering infrastructure programmes are a huge asset to the business and our clients.
“DCOs are a complex and intensive process, so teamwork is absolutely crucial. You need the right people and set of skills to all work together each step of the way. It’s ultimately about people and trust. We have an excellent team of experts to offer clients this new service to support a wide range of energy infrastructure projects across England and Wales.”
Gill Froud, Divisional Director
This enhanced service to support NSIPs builds on our already strong skill set in land assembly, land referencing and industry-leading GIS systems. We offer our clients a complete service, including:
- Land strategy
- Land referencing and assembly
- Innovative GIS software
- Stakeholder engagement and negotiations
- Surveying
- Planning guidance
- Programme management
B&P’s innovative approach and vibrant culture have people and relationships at its heart. Our personal and honest approach to engagement with clients and stakeholders builds trust and confidence to support successful project delivery. We pride ourselves on the breadth of skills and mix of backgrounds our team offers, ensuring we can build bespoke teams of the right people for each project.
We have significantly grown our presence in England and Wales over the past 12 months, with a new head office in Manchester, plus offices in Salisbury and Bury St Edmunds, adding to our existing offices in Tunbridge Wells, York and Norfolk.
If you would like to find out more about how B&P can support you on a major infrastructure project we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch via info@blackhallpowis.com
As a consultancy involved in delivering essential networks infrastructure, we are supporting a significant number of projects in sensitive parts of the UK. This often means working near designated sites and protected species. Working in these areas doesn’t necessarily mean a binary choice between stopping activity or accepting ecological harm. With the right expertise, planning and on‑the‑ground vigilance, critical infrastructure and renewable energy projects can proceed whilst still ensuring protection of sensitive habitats and species. A great example of this is the work we’ve been carrying out as part of SSEN Distribution’s strategic upgrade of its network in the west of Mull.
About the project
As part of construction phase environmental support our Lead Ecologist, Jenny Diack, has led the ECoW team supervising helicopter pole delivery movements for a new overhead line near Bunessan on Mull – a project which SSEN Distribution has designed to ensure resilience and continuity of supply for customers in the west of Mull. The works are in close proximity to the Cnuic agus Cladach Mhuile SPA and known territories of Schedule 1A species golden eagle, hen harrier and white‑tailed eagle. In sections of the route, movement of equipment by helicopter was required to access remote areas of the site and difficult terrain, accelerating project timelines and reducing costs. This method of transport also reduced ground disturbance and potential impacts on sensitive habitats.
“With the right expertise, planning and on‑the‑ground vigilance, critical infrastructure and renewable energy projects can proceed whilst still ensuring protection of sensitive habitats and species.”
Jenny Diack, Lead Ecologist
our role
Working closely with SSEN Distribution’s principal contractor Aureos, and with field support from EP Ecology ecologists, we avoided a blanket cessation of works during the bird nesting season, adopted a proportionate, risk‑based strategy to ensure the project could be delivered on time whilst minimising the risk to sensitive bird species within the area. This involved:
- Protected Species Risk Assessments prepared in liaison with NatureScot.
- Pre‑works walkovers by ECoW personnel to confirm absence of active nests within agreed disturbance buffers.
- Active monitoring during helicopter operations, with real‑time communication between the ecologist, contractor and aircrew to avoid disturbance when birds were present.
These measures enabled SSEN’s essential network upgrade to progress while maintaining compliance with protected species legislation and minimising disturbance to priority species and habitats.
How we can support you
Our Planning and Development team have been providing ecology support on a variety of projects this year from EcIA, BNG Assessments and Biodiversity Enhancement Plans for BESS and Solar developments to ECoW. If you have any questions or need support on planning‑stage ecology or construction‑phase supervision contact:
Jenny Diack — Lead Ecologist: jenny.diack@blackhallpowis.com
James Wheater — Director, Planning and Development: james.wheater@blackhallpowis.com
Blackhall & Powis are proud of our strong relationship with the fishing industry.
Led by our Director of Marine/Fisheries, Tommy Finn, we’re able to bring real industry knowledge and connections to our clients and guide them on how to effectively work with the fishing sector.
As part of this, we’re part of the Fishing Liaison with Offshore Wind and Wet Renewables Group (FLOWW), which has just recently published updated best practice guidance for liaison between Fisheries and Offshore Renewables Developers.
The guidance covers current and future Offshore Renewable Energy sectors across the United Kingdom (UK), including:
- offshore wind (with a focus on fixed offshore wind farms)
- wave and tidal stream (i.e. excluding tidal barrage projects);
- test and demonstration projects;
- and Offshore Renewable Energy-related infrastructure (i.e., subsea cables and protection methods, moorings, substations, and grid connections).
Being one of around 40 organisations with an interest in offshore renewables and the fishing industry that make up the group, our role has been to use our valuable industry knowledge and experience to influence the new guidance.
It’s been a long time coming, having last been reviewed in 2015, and while it may not be perfect, it’s an important step to have up-to-date guidance now in place and to see this reviewed on a more frequent basis in future.
We will watch with interest over the coming months how the guidance is received and used. And we will continue to play a role in continuing to shape future relationships, and to support our clients to work in partnership successfully with the fishing industry.
Find out more about our Marine Services
We’ve marked another major milestone in our ongoing expansion in England and Wales with the opening of our new B&P office in Manchester.
A few weeks in, our team are settling in nicely and getting to know the lie of the land…literally.
With our market-leading team already delivering on major projects and plenty of new opportunities on the horizon in the North West and Wales, our Manchester office is perfectly placed.
And with GB Energy opening its head office in the city earlier this year, we’re in a great position to support the UK Government’s green energy mission.
Opportunities
Key projects we already have underway include the Peak Cluster Project, working with a consortium of industry leaders to deliver this major carbon capture project from the Peak District to Ellesmere Port, and the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) from Huddersfield to Marsden with Network Rail.
We have a small team permanently based in Manchester, led by Natalie Reilly, who joined B&P this year from Jacobs, bringing over ten years of industry experience. We plan to grow the onsite team over the next six months.
The office is also a great base for our specialists from across the wider business to work from, in particular our innovative Land Referencing team led by Saffron Sergison, Associate Director, who has overseen the growth of this team of experts from a group of 1 to 10 in just over two years.
Saffron said: “There are lots of exciting opportunities in the North West and Manchester is so well connected that having an office there allows us to deploy easily and get out on sites at short notice.
“There are lots of like-minded organisations in the Land Referencing space based here too, so it is great for networking opportunities, client meetings and building strategic partnerships which we’re very keen to do.
“It’s also just a great, vibrant place offering a fun, social element which is an important part of the B&P culture.”
Key services
Our Manchester team offers full Land Assembly, Planning and Land Information services, with extensive experience in renewables projects.
We’re also exploring opportunities in urban regeneration and looking to develop partnerships with land and property consultants in the area.
We’re always open to a chat, so if you have a project or opportunity in these areas you’d like to discuss, get in touch.
Contact Saffron at saffron.sergison@blackhallpowis.com or Natalie at natalie.reilly@blackhallpowis.com
Over the course of this year, B&P has expanded our work to explore and deliver more and more international projects. As a key area of growth for us, this week we’re heading to one of the biggest international conferences for the energy industry, ADIPEC.
ADIPEC is an annual conference and exhibition in Abu Dhabi bringing together over 200,000 energy professionals and thought leaders from around the world.
It’s a chance to make connections and hear about innovative solutions and technologies.
For us at B&P it’s an opportunity to meet new and existing contacts face to face and share what we can and are doing in our work both in the UK and internationally.
Representing the team will be Phil Mellor, Director of Land Information and GIS, and Tommy Finn, Director of our Marine and Fisheries Services.
Phil and Tommy will be using this opportunity to talk about projects they have completed or have underway in Iraq, USA and Malaysia using our excellent geospatial services, and innovative and internationally proven approach to Marine/Fisheries stakeholder engagement, and vessel procurement/management.
The Middle East is a key area for B&P with more exciting news which we’ll be sharing soon.
We’re excited and hugely grateful to be teaming up with Energy Industry Council (EIC) and Scottish Development International (SDI) who have been great champions of our and other Scottish/UK energy businesses in the area.
If you’re going to be at ADIPEC please say hello to our guys. And if you can’t make it but are curious to see what opportunities we can offer in the Middle East, don’t worry we’ll be sharing more very soon. Watch this space!
At Blackhall and Powis we’re extremely proud of our Scottish roots and the impact we’ve made in the energy and renewables sector in Scotland, but our sights have always been firmly set on the bigger picture. With our rapid business growth in recent years, our strategic goal of expansion into the sector in England and Wales is already well on its way and will be cemented further over the coming months.
Super charging our operations in England and Wales, we now have B&P offices in York, Bury St Edmunds and Tunbridge Wells, with our newest office opening in Manchester in a matter of weeks. Not forgetting our Agricultural Liaison Team firmly embedded on the ground in the Norfolk Offshore Wind Project.
Next up and completing our network of teams across the UK will be a new office in the South West of England, which we aim to have open before the end of the current financial year.
The expansion of our operations across the UK is a natural progression from the major projects we’re already supporting in England, including Norfolk and the Morven offshore wind project, and reflects the increasing number of opportunities emerging for B&P. Most recently we’ve joined the UK Power Networks Framework and have a few other exciting projects and collaborations still to be revealed.
As our business has grown from a team of just two when we began in 2017 to a team of over 100 and counting this year, our services and expertise have grown exponentially too. Our commitment to bringing in the very best talent, experience and innovation transfers into the excellent quality of services we offer our clients.
We now have the capability, resources and infrastructure to successfully deliver all of our core services and functions – from onshore and offshore renewables to land referencing and GIS, Networks, Marine and Fisheries – across the whole of the UK and beyond. We’re excited to share this new chapter with you!
Get in touch for a chat to find out more Info@blackhallpowis.com
The approach to securing a grid connection for generation projects has changed, with the traditional building block approach replaced with a multi-gate qualification criteria being established. In this article Rick Campbell looks at the next steps for the industry.
After months of wrangling – getting applications submitted, confirming land agreements, finalising documents and grappling with portals, we’ve finally reached the end of the Gate 2 submission window.
Our industry has never seen a situation like it, where projects en masse have faced an externally appointed deadline to decide whether or not they are a “goer”. It also represents the biggest collection of live project information in our industry, ever. (As an aside, I wonder if any industry has collated a comparable dataset.)
There will be, of course, some companies who submit applications and get what they hoped for. Well done to them.
For the others I believe the following outcomes are most likely:
1. Good projects will be left behind
Through some fault of timing or capacity, projects which would otherwise be viable will not have been submitted or fail to achieve a Gate 2 (Phase 1 or 2).
2. Some people will win too much
The lack of a crystal ball means that developers cannot predict what they will win – so cannot confirm to investors what grid liabilities they will be on the hook for. This is bound to cause problems and one of those will be companies having bitten off more than they can reasonably chew.
So – what happens next?
Projects that have not made the grade (or were not submitted) still retain a value. The development pathway and timescales change but a good project is fundamentally a good project.
Likewise, projects that achieve a Gate 2 offer now present the best opportunity for delivering new generation. (Note: we should not fall into the trap of thinking Gate 2 offers are equivalent to FID. They are not, and projects will continue to be subject to the trials, tribulations and idiosyncrasies they always have.)
Blackhall & Powis are fortunate to represent and work alongside a large portion of the developer community, and our clients and their projects will no doubt fall into all three categories above.
Our position provides a degree of insight into developer order books, and our role as a trusted supplier means that we are well placed to steer clients towards prospects, either as an investor or where they are looking to secure additional or alternative support for a project.
If you’d like a chat about where your portfolio sits following the Gate 2 process, please do reach out. We’d love to talk.
Get in touch at info@blackhallpowis.com
The big news in our industry this week was the final chapter in the zonal pricing debate.
Our director of Business Development, Rick Campbell, outlines B&P’s position.
It’s such a relief to see the back of zonal pricing.
The UK renewables market is going through a number of changes at the moment. Inevitably change brings uncertainty and challenges the investment case.
As a land, planning and development consultancy specialising in supporting project promoters in the renewables space – in particular with our work in new site origination – Blackhall & Powis have excellent insight into the appetite for new investment in the market at a macro level.
We’ve seen a level of caution applied to projects, most notably for clients at the more risk-averse end of the market.
Grid Connection Reform
There is a general acceptance that the “first come, first served” approach to grid connections is outmoded and does not take account of the varying complexity of project consents and land agreements for different technology types.
Connections Reform (TMO4+) and Clean Power 2030 (CP30) will deliver a “first ready, first connected” model which will focus on requisite land, planning, energy density and strategic requirement. This is a welcome change which will give meaningful, sensible connection deadlines for projects.
The changes are imperfect. In particular I believe the geographic capacity targets applied by CP30 do not align with permitting challenges, and this will be borne out by the results of the Gate 2 process later this year.
However, the direction of travel from these changes is both necessary and will improve the investment case for projects. There is general acceptance that the resultant model will be an improvement following these changes.
Zonal Pricing
I don’t claim to be an expert on electricity market structure, and for that reason have felt a little helpless on this subject.
Zonal pricing was designed to address the imbalance in energy costs from a consumer perspective. From a project developer perspective – gained from discussions across the industry – the effect would have been a hammer blow to the business case. Massive depletion in renewable project development. Huge reduction in one of the country’s leading industries.
As one industry veteran put it to me, we’ve waited for years for a replacement to TNUoS and managed to find something worse.
As a consultant supporting a large number of developments, unashamedly reliant on continuing investment in the market, I’m delighted it has been put to bed and we can focus on the business of supporting the next wave of renewable energy projects.
If there’s one event on the renewables and green energy calendar that we look forward to each year, it’s All Energy.
And it’s not just because it’s on the doorstep of our head office in Glasgow, honest! All Energy is the UK’s largest low-carbon energy and renewables industry event.
The conference and exhibition, held on 14-15 May, was the biggest so far, not just for the event but for us at B&P too.
This year we took a stand and more of our team than ever, with about 25% of our staff attending across the two days. We had representation across our teams from our Land Information and GIS team, Onshore and Offshore, Networks (Scotland and England teams), Marine and Fisheries and Planning, showcasing the increasing breadth of specialist consultancy services we offer to support this dynamic sector.
With over 13,000 people attending the event over two days, it is of course a huge opportunity for us to see and hear what’s happening in the industry and connect with both existing and potential clients, collaborators and even sometime competitors!
It’s also a great chance for our team to continue their development, something we care deeply about, so we make sure that the exposure and opportunities are shared across as many of our team members as possible.
Highlights for us were the buzz and busyness at our stand, where we always try to create a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. It’s important for us to get across to potential clients and partners, not just our broad range of skills and services, but a flavour of the B&P culture which we hope everyone who stopped by to hang out with us enjoyed. We love a good chat and there was plenty of that across the two days.
There was a real focus on both the challenges and opportunities in the energy transition. From decarbonisation strategies, tackling net zero targets to the future of green tech, there was no shortage of ambition and innovation on display. Something we at B&P love to see and share in.
We were also thrilled to host some of our industry colleagues at a sponsored drinks event in partnership with Gael Energy on Wednesday evening. And there’s plenty to toast, in this rapidly growing and shifting sector there may be noticeable shifts in some of the conversation topics but there was plenty of exciting discussion about potential new opportunities and collaborations in the UK and beyond which we’re looking forward developing over the coming months and years.
With our own business having grown exponentially since launching in 2017 and significant expansion continuing this year to offer even more specialist, innovative services, we are perfectly placed and now All Energised to grasp those upcoming opportunities.
Missed catching up with our team at All Energy this year? No worries, get in touch for a chat Info@blackhallpowis.com