J+S demonstrates Marine Renewable Energy capability to local MP
Tue 16th June 2009
The Barnstaple-based Defence, Oil and Gas and Marine Renewables engineering services provider, J+S Ltd hosted a visit by North Devon MP Nick Harvey and took the opportunity to show Nick the progress the Company have made in the Marine Renewable Energy market.
J+S have developed a pressure compensated splice housing, which will be fitted at the EMEC (European Marine Energy Centre) wave and tidal hub sites situated off the Orkney Islands. This housing is in effect the plug and socket to a ring main from which electricity generated by wave and tidal energy device manufacturers will be transferred to the shore electricity sub-station. The housing is set to transfer up to 11kV at 300 amps. Future developments are set to work at up to 33kV.
In addition to developing and producing the sub-sea connectivity solution J+S will also provide offshore engineering support from both Aberdeen and Barnstaple as the various device manufacturers connect and disconnect their devices to the hub.
Commenting on the programme Managing Director, David Jeffries, said:
“This has been a challenging programme for our engineering team and we have had to draw on all our years of experience of marinising electrical connection systems for both the Naval Defence and Oil & Gas markets.
In addition we have had to develop our electrical engineering capabilities to scale our in –house technologies up to work with much higher voltages than we deal with for example in the Oil & Gas Sector where we are used to distributing power on the sea bed to operate sub-sea assets such as pumps etc rather than in the Marine Renewable market where we are transferring generated power back to a sub-station.
Finally we have had to develop a product which can not only withstand the ravages of the strong tidal currents off the Orkneys but can also be retrieved from the sea bed, disconnected and reconnected on the back of a boat in a relatively short time – a real challenge for our mechanical engineering team”
In addition to demonstrating the splice housing the Company took the opportunity to discuss with Nick Harvey a number of forthcoming Marine Renewables programmes including the South West Wave Hub due for deployment in 2010 for which they hope to provide the sub-sea connectivity solutions.
Nick Harvey commented:
“ It’s three years since I last visited J+S. At the time the business was suffering from cutbacks in their core naval support market. I am delighted to see the progress they have made in developing a presence in the Marine Renewable Energy Market which will complement their Naval support activities and help retain and develop engineering skills in North Devon”
Further information
J+S Ltd operates from sites at Barnstaple and Aberdeen, employing 120 people engaged on a range of engineering and production activities, primarily in naval support and sub-sea asset management for the North Sea oil and gas exploration markets. The Company has recently undergone a secondary Buy Out, having been acquired by management in a Buy Out in 1999.
Contact
For further information please contact David Jeffries – Managing Director – 01271 337508 or Chris Napier – General Manager Marine Renewables – 01271 337549