positivenergy T H E Q U A R T E R LY N E W S L E T T E R F R O M C A P U L A N U C L E A R
www.capulanuclear.co.uk www.capula.co.uk
October 2012 Issue 03
30 years of control & support for Sellafield
Capula’s Instematic controllers were the preferred plant controllers at Sellafield’s SIXEP and Fuel Handling Plants in the early ‘80s
Control & IT remain as important as ever for Capula at Sellafield Capula is celebrating 30 years of working at Sellafield to provide control system solutions and IT expertise. Ever since our Instematic system was identified by the site operators BNFL as the preferred plant controller for the Site Ion Exchange Effluent Plant (SIXEP) in the early eighties, Capula has enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the Sellafield site. The relationship has seen Capula move from product manufacturer to independent systems integrator, with our engineering expertise in control systems and project delivery being key reasons for our increasing involvement throughout the nineties on many projects on the site in Cumbria, as well as at other nuclear sites at Capenhurst, Magnox and beyond. Capula’s understanding of control and IT has seen us provide further value to clients throughout the energy and utilities markets.
Westlakes
In 2000, we opened our Nuclear Centre of Excellence at the Westlakes Science & Technology Park in Whitehaven, which has allowed us to service Sellafield’s control and IT requirements via a dedicated support team at a local base.
While continuing to support installed systems on site, Capula designed and developed a Virtual Infrastructure to migrate a number of the Windscale physical application servers onto the Sellafield domain network using virtualisation technology. It enables Sellafield to better manage and utilise hardware resources required to host the physical servers, while also providing them with a management platform from which to efficiently administer and monitor each virtual server and their hosting platform. More recently Capula secured a contract for the provision of both application support and development expertise at Sellafield, now run by Nuclear Management Partners and operated by Sellafield Ltd, which will see our work on the Sellafield site continue into its 30th year. “Capula has a fine track record of delivering effective control and IT solutions in the nuclear industry,” said Alex Moore, Nuclear Services Director for Capula, “Sellafield, under its different guises over the past 30 years, has been a key client for Capula as we’ve developed as a company. We’re proud of this landmark as it underlines our ongoing commitment to nuclear as part of the UK’s energy strategy.”
SevernTrentWater selects Capula as Strategic ICA Framework partner
We are delighted to announce that, following an extensive OJEU procurement process, Capula has been appointed by Severn Trent Water as their exclusive Strategic ICA Framework Partner with immediate effect. The term of the Framework will be to the end of AMP 6 (March 2020) and will include provision of major programmes of work such as large motor control centre (MCC) replacements, a major Telemetry upgrade programme, on-going support for complex solutions and specialist advice in developing an integrated ICA strategy to help Severn Trent Water deliver its business objectives. Capula are currently assisting Severn Trent Water in defining its PR14 submission to OFWAT for ICA funding and will continue to provide strategic advice, planning, preparation and training for standards and other delivery enablers leading into AMP 6. “This is an exciting opportunity to work in partnership with one of the largest water companies in the UK and together with their overall supply chain,” says Simon Coombs, Business Development Director. “We are pleased to have been selected for this strategic position based on our specialist automation and real-time IT skills, and extensive water industry experience.”
inside Staff numbers on increase • Paintball teambuilding • Cockermouth festival sponsorship
Staff count on the rise
It’s been an exciting time for Capula over the past couple of years with the size of the business doubling since 2009. In line with the notable successes in new contracts won, we’ve been recruiting steadily to increase our delivery resource across all sectors of our business. The addition of more than 70 permanent staff in 2012 has swelled our numbers, with a significant percentage working on nuclear-related projects, joining us in positions ranging from graduate roles through to senior engineering and project management. This growth is expected to increase on the back of the recent acquisition of Capula by Imtech Technical Services, paving the way for some very exciting opportunities both in the UK and overseas markets. Capula’s graduate recruitment programme continues to bear fruit - recruitment fairs at several universities (Staffordshire, Manchester Metropolitan, The University of Manchester, Loughborough, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham) raising our profile among engineering students in particular.
Roger Turner
“The combination of youth and experience is a winning formula borne out by regular endorsements from our clients,” says Chief Executive Roger Turner, “They underline that when they’re awarding us contracts, they’re not only choosing Capula’s solutions, but they’re choosing our people and our ability to deliver what we say we will, in line with their expectations.” Capula continues to recruit hardware and software engineers and project management professionals - visit www.capula.co.uk/careers for more information. We are always interested in hearing from skilled individuals so if you don’t find an advertised vacancy to suit your profile but would like to notify us of your availability, please do get in contact with us.
Paintballing fun for Capula teams
Staff from our Staffordshire and Cumbria offices traded their desks for weaponry this Summer as they geared
up for a day’s paintballing. Supported by the Capula Employee Association (CEA), which partly subsidised
the events, the events saw teams pitted against each other in a range of different games and challenges.
“It was a lot a fun,” said John Finch, a Systems Engineer at our Stone headquarters, “The arena was quite
small so once the whistle went, it was absolute carnage - it was chaos!”
Isaac Smith, another Systems Engineer from Stone echoed John’s sentiments: “I really enjoyed it - the
variety of games was great, although it was a bit crazy at some points and I’m pretty bruised now!”
The CEA was set up to serve the social and work-related welfare of its members. It is a voluntary body
which directly organises social activities for its members and also gives assistance to any members who wish
to organise particular activities for Association members.
Sponsorship of Cockermouth Beer Festival for a third year
Capula will be supporting Cockermouth Beer Festival this year in what will be our third as a sponsor. Organised by Round Table, the event showcases over 60 beers along with ciders and lagers from local and national breweries. All proceeds go towards local charities and community initiatives, with over £8,000 raised in 2011. “At Capula, we continually seek to make a positive contribution to our local communities through a variety of activities,” said Marketing Manager Steve Braund, “Round Table does excellent work all over the country and further afield. Through supporting the festival, Capula is helping to make a difference in Cumbria. Dominic Heaton, one of the organisers of the event and member of the Cockermouth branch of
Round Table, said: “this amount of fundraising for a small organisation like ourselves requires dedication, commitment and a lot of hard work, but this all this would be fruitless without the support of local organisations and businesses like Capula. With Capula’s involvement and generosity we are able to organise and provide a range of events such as the Santa’s grotto and float, to senior citizens trips, in addition to making a wide range of donations which makes a real difference to local organisations and individuals.” Cockermouth Beer Festival will be held in the Kirkgate Centre, Cockermouth from Thursday 29th November to Saturday 1st December. www.cockermouthbeerfestival.co.uk
Lending support to coffee morning
Capula was pleased to support the MacMillan Cancer Support’s ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ event in September. Some 51,000 people signed up to coffee morning in 2011, raising over £10 million. Having supported a coffee morning organised at Westlakes Science & Technology Park for several years, this year we provided raffle prizes as part of our commitment to local fundraising initiatives. Furthermore, our Stone office held a raffle alongside its own coffee morning event. Capula was also pleased to support Sellafield Ltd’s HALES Ryder Cup in their fundraising efforts for Great North Air Ambulance. The event, held in September at Whitehaven Golf Club, raised more than £4,500 for this worthy cause. coffee.macmillan.org.uk
www.greatnorthairambulance.co.uk
new fuel waste processing safety systems health monitoring radiological surveillance materials trackin
CAPULA UPGRADES CONTROL INTERFACE AT DRAX
LOW CARBON LONDON PROJECT FOR UKPN
to ensure the continued safe movement of trains on site and
configuration and deployment of an OSIsoft PI historian and
Capula has delivered a control interface at Drax Power Station supply of fuel to the facility.
Drax Power Station is the largest, cleanest and most
dioxide every year by burning carbon neutral fuel.
analysis tools as part of the Low Carbon London project.
us implement a DCS system for controlling the entire plant, a
safety system, low voltage switchgear and variable speed
trials in London and is led by UKPN in partnership with a
addition, Capula will be responsible for electrical cable design
which represents 7% of the UK's total requirements.
number of other organisations including EDF Energy, Logica,
with a modern SCADA solution, building it into the Materials
Handling control system we had recently installed and
interfacing with the Solid State Interlocking rail system already
Siemens and Imperial College London.
Low Carbon London will be deploying a range of IT and
SCADA facilities to support these trials and manage the data
collected, with the core data store being a 150,000 tag PI
in place. The process involved reverse engineering the
System from OSIsoft.
via a simulator. In addition, we replicated existing screen
associated tools, and will develop a customised database to
previously written bespoke code and thorough offline testing
visualisations to ensure a seamless changeover for the system operators.
“As a long term control and operational IT systems
partner to Drax, Capula’s intimate knowledge from previous
key projects made us an obvious choice to deliver this solution” said Chief Executive Roger Turner.
George Eccleston, Senior C&I Engineer at Drax, said
“Capula’s efforts have openly demonstrated their on-going
work qualities, which are contributing towards the success of Drax.”
Capula’s solution involves multi-disciplines and will see
The project is a Low Carbon Networks Fund (LCNF) Tier
2 programme which is carrying out a range of smart grid
Capula’s task was to replace an obsolete SCADA system
displace the emissions of around 80,000 tonnes of carbon
UK Power Networks has engaged Capula’s expertise in the
efficient coal-fired power station in the UK. It has six 660MW
generating units producing around 4000MW of electricity,
, k ws .u ne .co er l a th pu ur ca r f w. Fo ww it vis
What else is happening at Capula?
Capula is providing high level
consultancy related to the OSIsoft PI System database and store anonymous data relating to the customers involved. BLACKBURN MEADOWS BOILER ISLAND CONTROL
Capula has successfully won a contract with ANDRITZ Energy & Environment GmbH to provide the control solution
for the Boiler Island at E.ON’s Blackburn Meadows Biomass Renewable Energy Plant near Sheffield.
The 30MW (electrical output) renewable energy plant will
produce enough power for around 40,000 homes by
converting recycled waste wood into electricity. It will also
News from around the Nuclear industry
drives, standby diesel generator and UPS systems. In for all related cabling, lighting and small power design.
NATIONAL GRID GIVES CAPULA FULL MARKS ON PDSA
For the fourth year running, Capula has been awarded 100%
against a range of key performance indicators (KPI) on our
Post Delivery Support Agreement with National Grid. We provide cost effective service level support to National Grid,
optimised against cost for our entire substation Control & Monitoring Systems across over 100 sites in the UK.
This is the fourth year of the current PDSA contract based
on NICAP-equivalent Bay Solutions (National Integrated
Control and Protection) existing on the National Grid network. Rachel Green, Assistant Contract Manager for National
Grid, commented that “this had been another very good review period and are pleased with the performance and
good working relationship that exists between the two
companies. National Grid has great confidence that their assets are safe in stewardship of Capula under this PDSA.”
source: www.world-nuclear-news.org
DECOMMISSIONING STARTS ON ITALIAN REACTOR
Decommissioning of the nuclear island of the Trino Vercellese nuclear power plant in Italy is
now under way. The work is expected to take twelve years to complete at a total cost of 234 million.
Trino Vercellese - comprising a single 270 MWe pressurized water reactor - was Italy's
first commercial nuclear power plant. Its construction began in 1961 and the plant started generating electricity in 1964. As a result of a referendum held in 1987 in the wake of the
Chernobyl accident, Italy decided to shut down its four nuclear power plants. Trino was
subsequently permanently shut down in 1990. WA GOVERNMENT SAYS YES TO WILUNA
Western Australia is a step closer to opening its first uranium mine with the announcement
of the state government's final environmental approval of Toro Energy's proposed Wiluna mine. The project is now awaiting a final go-ahead from the Australian federal government. WA environment minister Bill Marmion's final approval of the mine includes new
conditions to protect local fauna living within groundwater systems and groundwater-
dependent vegetation, especially the local Tecticomia plant species. The approval includes
strengthened conditions on surface water flows, dust management and rehabilitiation. UNIT 1 CONTAINMENT VESSEL INVESTIGATED
An investigation is underway into the internal conditions of the primary containment vessel
(PCV) of the reactor at unit 1 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said that the water level in the vessel has been found to be higher than previously estimated.
ng life extension power generation defence EC&I design and manufacture IT solutions support services
NEW APPOINTMENTS We continue to push forward with our recruitment of SQEP staff for the nuclear industry, and we are delighted to announce several new additions to Capula who will be working on Nuclear projects: Sandie Doran is a recent Mechanical Engineering graduate and joins Capula from Loughborough University as a Graduate Assistant Project Manager. Chris Surplice has moved across from Projects to take up a role as Business Development Engineer dedicated to Nuclear projects. Russell Peake brings a wealth of experience to his new role as Project Controls Manager. Jason Roper joins Capula as an experienced Site Manager. Visit www.capulanuclear.co.uk to our current vacancies.
GRADUATE RECRUITMENT FAIR AT LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY Capula will be present at the forthcoming Graduate Recruitment and Placement Fair at Loughborough University on Tuesday 23 October. Miles Kitchener (HR Manager), Jaime Clinton, Sandie Doran and Steve Braund will on hand to answer any questions. NIA WORKING GROUP Phil Monks (Business Development Manager) attended the recent Decommissioning and Radwaste Working Group at Coleg Menai, Anglesey. “It was an excellent opportunity to network and discuss future projects,” said Phil, “These Nuclear projects offer opportunities to specialist companies such as Capula to work with other Companies and working groups like these offer an extremely useful platform for these discussions to take place.”
CAPTION
! n o i t i t e comp
Capula places safety at the forefront of everything we do - particularly when we’re working on site.
Can you come up with a caption
for the adjacent photo, featuring several of our delivery personnel?
E-mail your suggestions through
to positivenergy@capula.co.uk and the winning entrant will have their caption printed in the next issue. Closing date for entries:
Friday 30 November 2012
rk Brough, L-R: Roy Ellis, Ma h, ars -M ate ng Mark Wi Robert Powell
The winning suggestion for last issue’s competition, featuring the above photograph of TV celebrity
Pete Waterman and Capula’s Steve Braund, came from John Midgley, a SCADA Engineer at our head office in Stone:
Getting to know you... “Well Steve, I just shoot this imaginary starting gun like this and the graduates race to get their jobs, truly amazing”
This issue:Rachel Cotton,Junior ProjectAdministrator based in Stone What was the last film you saw?
Going on Oblivion at Alton Towers for the first
I have a black cat called Millie and also three
Are you a good dancer?
What are your pets called?
rabbits, but technically they’re my sister’s. Who was the last band you saw live?
I saw JLS earlier this year – do they count? Where do you go to relax?
few minutes.
Steve Braund (01785) 827106 steve.braund@capula.co.uk
What’s the first thing you would do if you were Prime Minister?
Appoint someone else to be Prime Minister I’d rather not!
What’s your biggest claim to fame?
I had my picture in the Stone Gazette once. What has been the scariest thing to
have to have an
My sister and I playing TY Beanie Babies – it
Next issue -
What do you miss most about being a kid? was like a cuddly toy soap opera.
Probably anything that was on Nickelodeon.
would end up reading for more than just a
nervous. I’d hate to
injection!
What reading material do you go for when I usually go for a nice girly book – although I
have anything done at the
dentists I still get
Maybe after a few drinks, yes.
What was your favourite TV show as a
you get a few minutes?
If you have any stories or information you feel should be included in a future issue of positivenergy, or have any comments to make about the newsletter, then contact:
time. I was terrified.
A day out with friends to the cinema or something is always nice.
positivenergy is published by Capula Nuclear.
happen to you in your life?
The Woman in Black – very scary!
Rob Tackley
child?
Some favourites were Sabrina the Teenage
Witch, Sister Sister and occasionally Kenan & Kel.
Who was your celebrity crush when you were younger?
I used to love the boy band Blue – especially Lee Ryan.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? “Always be yourself”.
What are you like at the dentists?
Even though I have never had to
Rachel Cotton
Capula Nuclear • Beacon House • Stone Business Park • Stone • Staffordshire • ST15 0NN • T: 01785 827000 • W: www.capulanuclear.co.uk
All images & content © Capula Limited 2012 unless otherwise stated. Not to be reproduced without written consent.
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