We had a fantastic time welcoming clients and colleagues to our inaugural Renewable Power Event in London hosted by Electrical Engineer, Ben Adams.
The event was an opportunity for the Hawkins Power & Energy team to catch up with some of our key clients and introduce our latest recruits and their specific skillsets.
The evening began with a series of short presentations from the Hawkins team. Chartered Engineer, Dr Hugh Martindale, presented ‘Offshore Wind Subsea Power Cables: Understanding Damage’ and gave an overview of subsea power cable applications, explaining the different types and their capabilities, structure, typical failure modes and the industry response to these failures.
He was followed by Materials Engineer, Dr Amir Hajdaei who discussed ‘Wind Turbines and Associated Failures’. Amir shared details of wind power capacity and trends, wind turbine components including blade structure, typical wind turbine failures, and the common causes of failure.
Electrical Engineer, Ben Lister, then presented ‘Widespread Issues in the UK Solar Fleet’. He explained that the three common issues are defective components, environmental impacts and maintenance in the modern industry. He then reviewed a typical UK solar farm ‘indoor’ substation and concluded with maintenance best practices.
The final presentation came from the head of our Built Environment team, Andrew Reeves who discussed ‘Renewable Power – Structural Failures’. Andrew explained the differences between Civil/Structural Engineers and Mechanical Engineers stating that there is a simple rule of thumb: ‘If it was meant to move but now doesn’t, you need a Mechanical Engineer: If it was not meant to move but has collapsed, slid, or rotated, you need a Civil/Structural Engineer’. He then shared some recent case studies including wind turbine foundation failures and a wind turbine nacelle bedplate failure, to highlight the common failure types, and how Hawkins approaches such investigations.
Guests were then invited to meet the team and enjoy some drinks and canapes.
Hawkins extends our warmest thanks to everyone who attended and hope to see you again at our next Power & Energy event, planned for the Autumn.
