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
Blackhall & Powis officially began in May 2017 with just two employees.
We had an ambitious vision from the start and focused the early days on building a strong foundation.
Within a year we expanded to add the GIS part of the business, doubling our team to a total of four. But this initial phase set the trajectory for our subsequent growth. A significant milestone in our expansion was moving into our first Glasgow office in 2019, and by 2023 we had established an office in England solidifying our presence in the UK.
In recent years, we’ve seen substantial financial growth. For instance, in the financial year ending May 2024, we were on track to turnover approximately £5.8 million, exceeding our initial target by over £1 million. This financial success is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, which at that time had grown to include 58 of the most capable and talented individuals. We’re now at more than 75 and continuing to bring on board new talent and expertise.
Throughout these years, our core objective hasn’t changed. We have consistently aimed to support the development and maintenance of a more sustainable infrastructure system. This continues to drive our business strategy and have been integral to our success.
Looking ahead, we have ambitious plans to scale the business group to £40 million in the next ten years. This growth will open up numerous exciting career development opportunities for our team. Because at the heart of the B&P are brilliant, talented people who love what they do, relish a challenge and deliver excellent work.
Our commitment to innovation and excellence has been unwavering, and we’ve made significant investments in finance and property management systems to support our growth. The introduction of new roles, such as Country Managers, will further enhance our service delivery and position us for continued success in various sectors.
The past eight years have been a period of significant growth and development for our business. We have expanded our team, increased our financial performance, and laid a strong foundation for future success.
As we continue to grow, we remain committed to our core objectives and to creating shared and lasting value for all our clients and stakeholders.