June 2010

SPED in the UK & Eire

Review Training day planned near London

The state of the UK Process Industry economy meant that take up of the Review Training Day was insufficient to proceed.  Perhaps we may have done better if we had gone for a Level I course. 

We have since contacted all UK people known to be interested in SPED at some time in the past.  Nearly all of them are private contractors so perhaps strapped for cash at the moment and unable to persuade employers to provide support or host a venue, in return for a couple of free places.

We said last month that we were grateful for the support of North American corporate members and we hope that they will continue to encourage their European brothers to show a positive attitude to SPED.

I will approach all our prime contacts again seeking “a vote” on the three key options, Place, Day (weekday or weekend) and Level I or III.

UK Energy News

I am personally organising a 2 day conference in October on Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) on behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.  The first day is devoted to regulatory issues and key aspects of the technology that condition policy making.  The second day is dedicated to case studies of existing projects that are commissioning or operational.

Energy related projects of capturing carbon; storing LNG and Nuclear remain our best hopes for a pick up in the UK piping engineering market.

UK Process Industry News

The news here, like yours, is full of the BP problems in the Gulf.  And here, like you, it is against a backdrop of ever tightening regulation.  There are fears that new emission controls could force the premature shut down more UK power stations and aggravate the already real risk that the UK will run out of electricity in late 2015. 

Now every chemical used in every European location has to be registered by November on pain of large fines.  50,000 corporate registrations are anticipated.  This may swamp the European Agency involved, whose systems collapsed in 2008, with a fraction of this final number of pre-registrations. 

The report into the Buncefield Oil Depot explosion (the largest ever in Europe in peacetime), has deepened the gloom, with no new projects gaining news reports.

To write this piece I review. Professional Engineer (the news Magazine of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers) issued every 2 weeks, The Engineer (backed by the Royal Academy of Engineers) also 2 weekly and Process Engineering only every 2 months.

Norman Harris

Norman.harris@20cc.co.uk