As part of British Energy’s continuing commitment to provide clean, safe and reliable electricity across the UK, the company today signed a seven-year partnership agreement worth around £550 million and securing up to 800 jobs in Scotland and the rest of the UK with Renfrew-based Doosan Babcock. The partnership also has the opportunity for a future joint apprenticeship and graduate training scheme between the two companies. From their Renfrew base, Doosan Babcock will provide a mobile workforce of high quality technical and engineering staff to support British Energy’s generating stations across the UK. Bill Coley, Chief Executive of British Energy said: “Over the years, Doosan Babcock has consistently supported our industry’s commitment to safety, quality and excellence, providing British Energy with the support of highly skilled people. This agreement builds on the strong relationship we have had with Doosan Babcock since 2002 and establishes the basis for an even more successful partnership for our two companies.” “British Energy remains committed to Scotland, the location of our corporate office. Scotland is the base for a quarter of our generation fleet and the location that provides key engineering support, corporate services and high quality external engineering support across our company.” Iain Miller, Chief Executive of Doosan Babcock said “Doosan Babcock has a long standing and continuing relationship with British Energy, having worked on station maintenance support activities, plant outages, and a wide range of projects across all of its sites. However, this contract builds on this approach and moves towards a more strategic, coordinated and long-term relationship in support of operational reliability and plant life extension.” Wendy Alexander, MSP for Pailsey North which includes Renfrew, said: “This £550 million contract will bring many new, high quality jobs to the town, in addition to providing a more secure future for hundreds of Doosan Babcock employees on British Energy sites across Scotland. “The potential for a joint apprenticeship and graduate training scheme between the companies gives further cause for optimism. I will be urging local youngsters to consider these exciting opportunities as they plan their futures.”

Notes to editors:

The contract

The partnership strengthens the relationship between the two companies, which has existed since 2002 and covers mechanical site services, boiler and ancillary plant, engineering and technical support and non-destructive examination services. In addition, the contract will enable a fully integrated strategic approach to resource management, life extension, outage management, and project optimisation. This seven year contract, with the option of a two year extension, covers technical, engineering and operational support across all of British Energy sites.

British Energy

British Energy Group plc is the UK’s largest generator of electricity. With a dedicated workforce of about 6,000 skilled professionals, the company produces around one-sixth of the nation’s electricity. The company’s business strategy is to remain at the forefront of electricity generation in the UK. Put simply, the three imperatives for the business are world class nuclear operations, financial stability and life extensions. In the longer term British Energy will seek to apply its skills, expertise and assets in taking part in the evolution of the power market and in future debates initiated by Government regarding the UK’s energy strategy. The company is also striving reach world class standards of performance within the global nuclear community. British Energy is committed to operational excellence and achieving world-class performance in safety, human performance and plant performance and reliability. Further, the company seeks to extend the lives of the nuclear stations and secure the low-carbon benefits of those stations to help meet the climate change objectives of the UK. British Energy owns and operates eight nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power station. The company’s generating fleet helped avoid the emission of more than 33 million tonnes of CO2 in fiscal year 2006/2007. The nuclear stations have a combined capacity of almost 10,000 megawatts, whilst the coal-fired plant adds a further 1,960 megawatts of output. British Energy operates two types of nuclear reactor: the advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR); and a pressurised water reactor (PWR). Sizewell B is the only PWR nuclear power station in our portfolio.

Doosan Babcock

Doosan Babcock provides services to the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas and power industries worldwide. Its range of asset maintenance and improvement services, emissions control systems and related technologies allow Doosan Babcock to maintain its position as one of the world’s leaders in energy and process engineering. Globally headquartered in the UK, Doosan Babcock employs around 4,000 personnel.

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