Northern Region, Interest Forums Overview

March saw the inaugural meetings of three new interest forums, linked to the Northern Region Office. All three forums were held at the Baltic Business Centre in Gateshead and we were relieved to discover we hadn’t lost delegates to the Baltic Contemporary Arts Centre just a stone’s throw away!

Wednesday 8th March – LNG/LPG

This was the largest of the new forums and delegates from across EIC’s membership were represented at this meeting. Hugh Saville, MD of Minster International presented an excellent overview of the current situation in the LNG sector which assisted in shaping and focussing the forum’s discussion. Delegates were asked to give their opinions on how the forum should run in the future – length and frequency of the forums, content and so on. The overriding majority chose to see a mixture of technical and commercial interests covered at future forums. Various speakers and topics were suggested which will assist EIC in ensuring the Forum remains relevant to and well supported by members. Edward Jaworski of ASI Industrial Systems was elected to the post of Chairman of the LNG Forum.

Thursday 9 th March – Decommissioning

Paul Todd, Director Nuclear Decommissioning at Mitsui Babcock delivered an informative presentation on the technical challenges faced by decommissioning power plants, which stimulated questions and lively discussion from the floor. The decommissioning forum certainly passed the inaugural meeting test successfully! Again, delegates concluded that they would like to see the forums cover a mix of both technical issues and commercial discussion, through a specific speaker or presentation at each meeting. Martin Manning of Tyco Fire and Integrated Solutions volunteered for the post of Chairman over the networking luncheon.

The next meeting of the Decommissioning forum will be replaced by “EICFusion”, details of which can be found on the EIC website or by contacting Clare Shakespeare-Watts at the Northern Region Offices.

Tuesday 14th March - Transmission & Distribution

The inaugural meeting was planned for this date, but has been postponed to 13th June.

Wednesday 15th March – CO2

The final of March’s new Forums; the CO2 forum was again well supported and delegates had the opportunity to hear an in-depth presentation from Dr. Geoff Harrison of Siemens ISIS Technology on Compliance and CO2 Emissions Trading under the EU ETS scheme. Dr. Harrison fielded a number of questions from the floor and later delegates were canvassed for their opinion on the content and format of the forum, which again led to a decision to cover both technical and commercial issues. Delegates were given a handout containing all of the CO2 and related projects that are being tracked on the Projects Database and this will become a standing item at future forums. Richard Hughes of AMEC was elected to the post of Chairman of the CO2 Forum.

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