Greenville Electrical has been appointed by Power Control to be the company’s key Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) representative in Northern Ireland. Greenville will now offer Power Control’s range of UPS systems to its customer base. The firm has now been trained across the complete product range of PCL which offers three phase solid state, modular and single phase UPS solutions. In order to support Greenville’s knowledge of the products, the firm will be supported fully by PCL’s maintenance and service teams and will be given 24 hour access to the organisation’s project support and technical departments. The two firms have already commissioned and supplied Borri Ingenio 50kVA and 100kVA UPS solutions. Simon Murray, the Business Development Manager at Greenville, commented that as suppliers of critical equipment, a lot of which forms the basis of electrical infrastructure, the company has been looking for a partner in power protection to complete the company’s portfolio. He added that PCL is a perfect fit in terms of helping the company achieve its aims as the company’s UPS technologies and expertise delver on resilience, efficiency and performance, which are highly desirable for the Irish market. Mr Murray also believed that PCL offers an unrivalled level of service support and technical advice, adding that he has been impressed with the professionalism and expertise shown by the whole PCL team from maintenance and engineering through to product sales. He concluded that his firm is very much looking forward to the new partnership and is confident about helping PCL become one of Northern Ireland’s major UPS authorities. He also reiterated the fact that the new alliance will see the fully trained Greenville Electrical firm be appointed as the main UPS representative for Power Control in Northern Ireland. The two companies will fully support each other 24 hours a day through their dedicated maintenance and service teams.

Statoil has warned that the bid to replace coal with low carbon energy sources could be jeopardised by geopolitical tensions. The Norweigan group, who is the second largest natural gas producer in Europe behind Russian firm Gazprom, also highlighted the Brexit vote as one of the examples of threats to international co-operation. The firm argued that countries may now place a bigger focus on energy security instead of tackling climate change because of this shift to a more volative multipolar world. Statoil chief economist, Eirik Waerness, believes that a future of growing protectionism and regular political crises will make it more difficult to achieve global cohesion on the issue of carbon emission reductions. Statoil laid out three scenarios in its yearly long term outlook, of which this was one, while the other two made more optimistic forecasts about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While the group did not state which scenario is most likely to happen, Mr Waerness did say during Wednesday’s briefing that the UK’s forthcoming exit of the European Union is the kind of event that ties into its most pessimistic outlook. The report stated that a period of raised geopolitical rivalry would result in ‘growing disagreement about ‘the game rules’ and a lesser ability to manage environmental, economic and political crises. If this scenario were to come to fruition, the reduction of carbon emission would be considered a low priority and agreements made on climate change, such as the one in Paris last year, would only be partly implemented. Also featured in the synopsis was a weakening of international institutions (World Trade Organisation, Nato and UN), an economically stagnant Europe and a more isolated US. In this geopolitical landscape, it is forecast that carbon emission would go up by 18% by 2040 and would continue to climb beyond this period, as predicted by Statoil.

Highways England has announced plans of a project to build a new £75 million triple decker roundabout to be constructed by contracting joint venture Sisk Lagan. The structure will be part of the organisation’s A19/A1058 Coast Road junction improvement work in North Tyneside, with the plans to be published in Newcastle next weekend for the public to see. The plan is for Sisk Lagan to lower the A19 underneath the existing A1058 Coast Road and roundabout with the aim of reducing congestion, with work set to begin in August this year. The overall scheme will cost Highways England £75 million, with the contract for Sisk Lagan valued at £40 million. The project is on the main route towards the Tyne Tunnel and will eradicate the queues for drivers who want to go straight on at the A19 roundabout. Instead, drivers will now use a new section of the road that will run beneath the existing junction. Julia Alexander, Project Manager at Highways England, commented that when it is complete the scheme will reduce journey times on the A19 road by cutting congestion while making it safer in the process for the thousands of drivers that use the junction every day along with pedestrians and cyclists. Ms Alexander said that the A19 provides vital access to the Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate, South East Northumberland, the Cobalt Business Park and the Silverlink Retail Park, adding that during its construction they will do everything they can to make sure there is as little disruption as possible and that traffic stays on the move. The public information exercise will explain to the public what disruption can be expected for local motorists and will include a display at the Village Hotel on Cobalt Business Park in Newcastle on July 1 until 8pm and on July 2 until 4pm, where Highways England and Sisk Lagan representatives will be in attendance.

Solar City, the solar power firm that received a takeover bid from Tesla Motors, has started dealing with a series of potential conflicts of interest by announcing that the proposal is to be considered by a special committee of directors. Although the committee is made up of just two of Solar City’s eight board directors, it does feature one who was previously on the board at Tesla. This overlap is indicative of the difficulties faced by the solar company in persuading shareholders that it will take an objective and unbiased approach to the takeover approach. The committee will also be required to lay the foundations for what experts believe will result in an inevitable legal challenge is the deal were to be finalised. Elon Musk, chief executive officer at Telsa and chairman of Solar City, owns over 20% in both organisations, which has prompted further questions about possible conflicts of interest when the takeover bid was revealed last week. Antonias Gracias, an investor who holds a place on both company boards, said, along with Mr Musk, that they will not vote their shares in either firm in future shareholder votes on the proposed deal. However, the company ties go much further than this, with just one of Solar City’s eight person board having no current or former connection to Tesla. Earlier in the week, the solar firm constructed a special committee which has “exclusive authority” to consider the organisation’s value creation opportunities and its long term business plan. One of the committee members, Nancy Pfund, is a venture capital investor who was formerly a Tesla board member before its public offering back in 2010, while committee chair, Donald Kendall, has no former ties. Lazard and Skadden Arps advised the committee. There are now just three directors who can still vote on any future offer – John Fisher, Ms Pfund and Mr Kendall.

Bristol Water says it is considering renewable energy projects in its supply area, one of which is floating solar panels on its water storage reservoirs. The water supplier said it is hopeful that renewable energy sources will in future make up a significant amount of the 80GWh that the company uses each year in providing water to its 1.2 million customers. In order to achieve this goal, one of the projects being considered by the company is the installation of a floating solar farm on a water storage reservoir, with Barrow Gurney currently looking like the most promising site for such a scheme. The firm says that although there are only a few floating solar panel farms installed across the world so far, it expects to see a rise in the cutting edge technology over the next few years. Bristol Water believes that water company reservoirs provide provide one of the best sites for the innovative approach to be performed. Patric Bulmer, head of environment strategy at Bristol Water, said that Bristol Water is excited to be part of this project and that the company is striving to get as much of its energy as possible from renewable sources. He added that the firm’s reservoirs are a big asset in various ways and now that the floating solar panel farm technology is out there, it is something the company will be fully exploring. Mr Bulmer believes that the technology will benefit customers by keeping water bills down, as well as making sense for the company both environmentally and in a business sense. In its investigations of potential renewable energy schemes, the company has hired three contractors who are Eneco, ASC and HBS. They will also investigate solar panels and wind turbines as possible renewable energy projects at a number of sites in the area, such as Bedminster Down where the firm’s head office is situated.

A number of MPs have called for the National Grid to be broken up to revolutionise the energy supply of the UK. The National Grid runs the country’s electricity system and is one of the 20 largest companies in Britain with a £36 billion market value. Now, MP’s on the cross-party select committee believe that the company should be split up due to various conflicts of interest within the organisation. However, shareholders may find that such a decision could prove costly as shown by past attempts to shake up the company – Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, proposed revolutionising the way the National Grid was run and as a result shares dipped significantly, although they later improved. There are three different sections of the company – it owns assets like interconnectors that bring over foreign power to the UK, it runs the system to ensure that lights stay on and it owns the pylons and wires that carry electricity around the UK. In recent years, the company’s imports of power from abroad have proved especially profitable for the organisation as the country has been reliant on imports of electricity to make sure the power keeps running. The company posted annual profits last month, spurred by the £123 million in operating profit from the interconnector with France, which is an increase of 19% on the year before. However, critics argue that the National Grid should not be in possession of such a profitable asset, while also running the system that takes out and uses power from it, although the company say that safeguards have been put in place to ensure a separation of the two functions. There are now consultations between Ministers about the structure of the company, with company chiefs saying that they are still considering splitting it up entirely. National Grid say that they are currently still in talks with the government and regulators to make sure that they keep managing any potential conflicts.

The state oil company of Kazakhstan has tightened its grip on its UK based unit over opposition from some of its independent directors and has set up a further boardroom battle at another London based Kazakh oil firm. KazMunaiGas, a national company which is fully owned by the Kazakh state called an extraordinary general meeting on Friday to go over its relationship agreement with KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, the London based subsidiary which it holds a 63% stake in. The firm also offered to buy out and minority shareholders who were not happy with the changes that were enforces. KMG EP’s independent directors said that they would offer their resignations if the proposals got the green light and argued that they would massively weaken the protections given to independent shareholders. The strife between the Kazakh oil firm and its subsidiary is reminiscent of the long running tussle between mining company Eurasia Natural Resources Corporation and its independent directors from the UK. In 2013, ENRC left the London market under a could of corruption allegations and boardroom battles, which dealt a sizeable blow to the international reputation of Kazakhstan. This latest battle will be a major test of the country’s approach to investors from abroad as it prepares for a programme of ambitious privatisation. The central Asian country announced plans last year to float minority stakes in some of its biggest firms, which include NC KMG. The relationship agreements between the Kazakh oil firm and its subsidiary was introduced to protect minority shareholders when KMG EP listed 10 years ago and gave substantial power to the three independent directors of the firm. NC KMG is now arguing that further alterations to the agreement will be necessary in order to reduce bureaucracy and bring in plans that will make the operations of KMG EP more efficient. The proposed alterations would have to be approved by at least half of the minority shareholders who vote at the EGM on August 3.

Siemens has secured a wind turbine deal with Gamesa, a Spanish renewables group. The German company will pay 3.75 Euros per share to Gamesa shareholders as part of a deal that will see the two firms’ wind businesses combine to form the biggest turbine builder in the world, with a valuation of around 10 million Euros. The two companies have been in discussion about the terms of the terms of the deal since the start of the year and it has been decided that Siemens will take a 59% ownership of the combined entity. After the merger has been completed, the business will be listed and have its headquarters based in Spain, with an anticipated order backlog of around 20 billion Euros, with operating profits of 839 million Euros and annual revenues of 9.3 billion Euros. Furthermore, the companies hope the deal will lead to around 230 million Euros of earnings synergies every year, before tax and interest. The cash payment of 3.75 Euros per share by Siemens represents 26% of the Spanish firm’s share price of January this year, before it was announced that talks were taking place between the two companies. Gamesa’s shared closed at 15.475 Euros on Thursday before they were suspended the following day. Chairman of the Spanish firm, Ignacio Martin, said that the deal to merge with Siemens has come from a recognition of the company’s work over the past few years and is evidence of its commitment to long term generation value through the creation of substantial synergies which extend the horizon of profitable growth for the firm. He anticipates that the combined group will become one of the dominant players in wind turbine construction, adding that they are embarking on a new era along with a world leading player in the wind industry. He told investors that Gamesa will now be able to continue their work as part of a stronger organisation with a better ability to provide its customers with end to end solutions.

Two of the biggest life insurance firms in the UK have sealed investment deals in infrastructure as the sector continues to show its growing desire for physical assets. Insurance firm Legal & General has announced that is is to pump £65 million into Newcastle Science Central, which is a £350 million science and technology park that will be constructed on a 24 acre site in the city centre. Meanwhile, the Pension Insurance Corporation has said it will inject £100 million into debt secured on the new Thames Tideway Tunnel, or a ‘super sewer’, which is a project costing £4.2 billion and is expected to be complete in 2023. These are the latest in a series of deals secured by insurance companies as they show a growing trend towards investing in bricks and mortar assets. While infrastructure remains a small section of insurance firms’ overall operations, it is a sector that has seen rapid growth. One of the attractions of physical assets is that they offer cash flow in the long term to match the extended liabilities of insurers. This is crucial for firms such as PIC and Legal & General which specialise in pension products and annuity that can last for several decades. Furthermore, because it is often illiquid, there are often better returns offered in infrastructure than those available on other long term assets like corporate bonds of government. Black Rock’s Insurance Asset Management Team Managing Director, Patrick Liedtke, said that infrastructure debt ‘ticks all the boxes’ as it provides investment grade paper that is long dated and allows insurance firms to match their liabilities and assets. He added that the companies are using it to replace some of the more classic papers that they would have otherwise held. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs Asset Management conducted a survey that found infrastructure equality and infrastructure debt are among insurers’ most popular asset clauses, with a significant majority intending to pledge more money into the assets than take money away.

UK engineering firm Mott MacDonald and Swedish planning firm Sweco have been jointly appointed by Transport Scotland as consultants for dualling a 29 mile stretch of the A96. The A96 stretches from Inverness to Aberdeen, with the proposed dualling stretch situated between Fochabers and Hardmuir. The two firms (MMS JV) will explore potential options for the work before then taking on the detailed design work. Transport Scotland say that the contract was worth up to £50 million and hopes the scheme will significantly reduce driving times between Aberdeen and Inverness. The group is planning to improve the whole 86 miles of the A96 by 2030 and is starting off by targeting the stretches that suffer the worst bottlenecks on a regular basis that result in widespread disruption and traffic congestion. The Fochabers to Hardmuir section of the road is mainly made up of single lane carriageway which passes close to or through various villages and towns. The two firms will start their joint venture this summer with their assessment and design work before embarking on the process of assessing the various possible route options, which is anticipated to take up to two years to complete. Along the full length of the new road there will be numerous grade separated junctions where several communities will see the creation of new bypasses, including Elgin and Forres. The work will also see the construction of new crossings at the River Spey, the River Lossie and the River Findhorn, along with the rail line between Inverness and Aberdeen. Earlier in the month, Transport Scotland announced a five month delay on the construction of the Queensferry Crossing. The original opening date of December 2016 has now been put back to May 2017 due to adverse weather conditions, specifically high winds.