Hydro Conference & Exhibition 2019 Speakers

Catherine Falconer

Major Connections Manager, Scottish & Southern Electricity Network

Cathy has worked in the electricity industry since 1987 and has been involved in various technical, planning and policy roles now predominantly concerned with new connections: new housing, major demand and generation and alternative provider projects. She is an Edinburgh University Electrical Engineering graduate, Chartered Engineer and Member of the IET. The teams of Commercial Contract Managers for Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks Distribution licences in both Scotland and England are managed by Cathy as well as the Incentive on Connections Engagement (ICE) team. Her teams provided key account management to large distributed generation and demand customers focused on providing a single point of contact for clients throughout the application process up to and beyond energization. They are also responsible for gathering and then ensuring the delivery of significant improvement Commitments for SSENs new connections customers under ICE.

Gregor Hogg

Consultant, Ricardo Energy and Environment

Gregor is a consultant in the energy practice at Ricardo Energy & Environment. Over the last few years he has specialised in providing support to energy systems projects being developed in remote and/or island regions. Gregor has provided support on the integration of a broad range of technology types ranging from renewable heat, low emission transport, energy storage and hydrogen, through to the more conventional renewable generation technologies such wind, solar and hydro.

Sean Kelly

Project Manager, SSE

Sean Kelly has been a Hydro and Storage Project Manager for SSE since 2009. During those nine years, Sean’s responsibilities have included working various hydro generation projects at Sloy, Fasnakyle and new green field projects. Sean has been advising on project viability for various SSE battery storage projects. Sean is also a dedicated member of SSE’s Pumped Storage Strategy Group and Sean is currently the project Manager for the SSE Coire Glas 1500MW pumped storage project located in the Great Glen. This project is hoping to achieve full Planning consent in the next few months.

Previous roles in the hydro sector include Principal Consultant in Small Hydro Development with Mouchel (now WSP), and Hydro Development Engineer for the UK and North America with Alconza.

Sean graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1983 with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Claire Mack

Chief Executive, Scottish Renewables

Claire has been Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, the representative voice of Scotland’s renewable energy industry, since October 2017. She is responsible for leading the organisation’s work to grow Scotland’s renewables sector and sustain its position at the forefront of the global clean energy industry.

Claire is a member of the First Minister’s Energy Advisory Board and the Renewables Industry Advisory Group, co-chaired by Scotland’s Energy Minister.

Before joining Scottish Renewables, Claire was Director of Policy and Place at the Scottish Council for Development. She has previously worked in various roles at Ofcom in Scotland, focusing on economic regulation of telecoms, radio spectrum and the mail market while also looking at developing digital participation of individuals and businesses.

Prior to this Claire worked in retail and the construction industry as well as on regulation of regional broadcasting in the Borders and North East of England.

Roisin McCormack

Sales & Marketing Manager, DesignPro Renewables

Roisin McCormack leads the Sales and Marketing activities for DesignPro Renewables (https://designprorenewables.com/), overseeing the company’s commercial strategy as well as managing partnership and business development opportunities including the writing of funding applications. She practices a ‘lean’ business approach involving rapid product development cycles and heavy use of networks and collaboration to address critical strategic decisions as early as possible. With a focus on innovation and tasked with achieving market launch with effectively zero budget, she will look at how companies can capitalise on their own resources and white-space market opportunities to achieve success and overcome barriers and challenges.

Tom Pendry

Project Manager, Buccleuch

Tom has worked in the renewables industry for over 10 years, primarily on hydropower and wind projects, both internationally across the globe, as well as within the UK. He has worked in all areas and phases of projects, including from concept and feasibility through to construction supervision, O&M and optimisation. He now works for Buccleuch, developing the consented 210MW Glenmuckloch pumped storage hydro in Dumfries and Galloway, as well as a number of wind farm and a diverse portfolio of other energy projects across Buccleuch Estates.

Nicola Percival

Policy & Regulations Manager, innogy Renewables UK

Nicola Percival
Policy & Regulations Manager

innogy Renewables UK

Nicola has worked in the renewable energy sector for 5 years. She is in the Policy & Regulations team at innogy, having previously worked at Ofgem for 2.5 years working on the RHI and RO schemes. Nicola’s main focus areas are on the policies for grid connections and use of system charges. She believes that the next 12-18 months are a crucial time for renewable energy technologies and disruptors as the Ofgem-led charging reviews present an opportunity for Ofgem, government and National Grid to work with industry stakeholders to re-shape governance and set policies which enable the transition to a smart, flexible system for the benefit of energy consumers and to meet UK carbon targets. Nicola is also a member of the Scottish Renewables Board of Directors having been co-opted in April 2018. She identifies as a feminist and is keen to see the energy industry embrace strategies for greater diversity in the energy industry at all levels and work to achieve intersectional equality.

Hannah Smith

Senior Policy Manager, Scottish Renewables

Hannah Smith is a Senior Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables, leading the organisation’s policy work on local and decentralised energy. Hannah is responsible for a variety of policy and commercial projects relating to the economics of the energy market, the optimisation of energy networks, and innovation across technologies and business models – all across renewable electricity, heat and transport.

Hannah has spent four years at Scottish Renewables, covering various aspects of policy work. Prior to joining the policy team, she worked with the UN on an energy project in Kyrgyzstan. She holds a Masters Degree in International Relations.

Kenny Taylor

Sustainable Development – Policy and Advice, Scottish Natural Heritage

Providing natural heritage advice to the energy sector for over 10 years, with a particular focus on hydro development. My work is about enabling the right development in the right place.

Mark Wilson

Chief Executive, Intelligent Land Investments

Mark has over 15 years of experience in the residential property market including the successful completion of fundraisings for property investment companies. After the economic downturn in 2008, he diversified into the renewable energy sector replicating the business model to achieve success. From an original target of 100 consents, Mark led the Intelligent Land team in achieving 96 successful planning applications for onshore wind turbine projects.

If his transition to renewables was prompted by events of 2008, his continued commitment to the sector is all about the legacy of a more sustainable energy infrastructure. As the team delivered
more successes with small onshore wind projects, he could see the growing necessity for a solution to the many gigawatts of intermittent generation that has been coming on stream in the UK and therefore the business potential in energy storage.

The development skills and planning expertise that are needed to add energy storage into our energy mix are exactly the same as those the Intelligent Land team has been successfully building over the last decade and more. For Mark, this has created a very exciting opportunity to build his renewable generation successes with a long-lasting sustainable solution for a greener, stable electricity grid.