5 June 2014 

The House of Lords was the setting for the annual dinner of the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies (PGES) sponsored by Costain. The event was attended by an impressive array of Members of Parliament and lords, academics and senior executives from industry.

The PGES mission statement is to provide a high-level forum for Parliament, industry, academia and others to discuss key energy issues, and share knowledge and expertise across the whole of the sector. The PGES also aims to promote the importance of these issues among key audiences and foster an informed, long-term view of domestic and international energy policy.

Guest of honour at this year’s dinner was Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who gave an impressive talk around the energy debate, policy and issues. He also spent considerable time answering challenging questions, showing the importance he puts on the event.  Costain was proud and delighted to be able to sponsor such a prestigious event and to be actively involved in the energy debate. 

Costain’s Infrastructure Managing Director, Darren James, also gave a talk on the Group’s involvement in both the infrastructure and natural resources divisions at the event, covering Costain’s involvement in helping meet national challenges including:

-the rising costs of energy and need for UK to remain competitive;
-the need for safe and reliable national infrastructure – Transmission & Distribution;
-necessity of long-term sources of power generation – nuclear and renewables;
-the importance of supporting sustainability and innovations, through using less and working more efficiently – such as Costain’s COdemand project;
-most importantly, the need for innovation – exemplified by Costain’s Engineering Tomorrow strategy.

Darren also introduced four of Costain’s graduates and apprentices, who were invited to the event to show the Company's commitment to the skills agenda and the importance of this to the energy industry. The four – Robert Ingram (Apprentice Engineer, London Power Tunnels project), David Cassar (Technical Apprentice, Bond Street Station upgrade), Furah Naeem (Graduate Chemical Engineer, Nuclear sector) and Sean Murphy (Graduate Package Manager, UK Power Network overhead lines framework) were spread around different tables at the dinner and given the chance to talk to key persons within the industry.

Sean commented: “The event was a great success; I was so privileged to be invited and found everyone there really interesting. It also seemed as though the audience were keen to hear about the skills agenda and how young professionals are being developed to move the energy agenda forward.”

Previous generations of young employees might have been overawed by the experience, but the four took it in their stride.

“As so many of our customers are in the energy industry, it’s very important for us to be at the centre of that debate as a thought leader,” said Power Sector Director, Ian Graves. “We sponsored the dinner as a demonstration of our commitment to PGES and what it stands for.

“It was also an opportunity for us to show the full breadth of Costain’s service offering. We’re now a preferred supplier in the industry, having displaced some long-term suppliers.”
 

Ends

 

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