Engineering Research Station 1964 -1993
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History of the Engineering Research Station 1964 -1993 ., [3 BG Technology Gas Retired Employees Association, London HQ Branch History of British Gas Research Stations British Gas was for many years a major world gas company. A large part of its position was its activities in research and development (R & D). There were five research stations Engineering Research Station (ERS) London Research Station Midlands Research Station Watson House On Line Inspection Centre (OLIC) In 1995 at a time of major change in the structure of R & D, British Gas Technology published histories of the four of the research stations of British Gas. Unfortunately, there was no similar history published of OLIC although it is partially covered in ERS report. This document is one of those histories. These documents were never put into the public domain even though they were fascinating records of a key part of the gas industry. A full set of the reports was made available by Eric Francis, a former Director of the Midlands Research Station and the London HQ Branch of the Gas Retired Employees Association decided to fund their scanning so that they could be put into the public domain. The London HQ Branch of the Gas Retired Employees Association is an organisation of British Gas pensioners who worked for all or part of their careers at the London headquarters of British Gas At the time of publication of the reports British Gas had moved its R & D, renamed Research & Technology (R & T), to Loughborough. When British Gas plc demerged in 1997 into BG plc and Centrica plc, R & T stayed with BG plc. In 2000, a further demerger of BG plc took place into BG Group plc and Lattice plc. Lattice included Transco, the UK gas transportation company, and Advantica Technologies, the new name for BG Technology. In 2002 Lattice merged with National Grid. At about the same time Advantica bought Stoner Technologies to broaden its reach to the US and to prepare the company for sale. In 2007, Advantica with its 660‐world staff was sold to Germanischer Lloyd. In 2009, Germanischer Lloyd merged with Noble Denton to form GL Noble Denton and in 2010 they sold the equipment testing business inherited from Advantica to BSI. Finally (?), in 2013 GL Noble Denton merged with DNV (Det Norske Veritas) to form DNV GL. DNV GL has a turnover of about £2 billion with around 14,000 employees world wide of whom about 1,000 are British. There is still an office in Loughborough. OLIC has gone in a different direction. It was sold to GE and remains in Cramlington where there is the world headquarters of PII Pipeline Solutions a 50:50 joint venture between GE Oil & Gas and Al Shaheen Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum. It has 11 locations globally and employs over 650 people. While it is true that the vestiges of British Gas R & D survive after all these mergers we must ask why did it decline so dramatically? The answer broadly lies in the competitive gas market which in Europe at least was initiated in the UK. Before this the world thought, and in parts still does, that gas was a natural monopoly; gas on gas competition was inconceivable, even illogical. That was the gas industry view, but politicians thought otherwise. In fact, the only part of the gas chain which is a natural monopoly is transmission and distribution. British Gas as a nationalised monopoly industry could have a long‐term perspective and some blue sky thinking to drive the industry forward in strong competition with the electricity industry and to a lesser extent oil. Technology was at the heart of this and the industry was more or less left to invest in R & D without external financial pressure and with a captive customer base to fund it. If we look at the three demerged elements of British Gas plc in the context of our liberalised gas market, we can see how different the R & D demands are. BG Group focussed on exploration and production and latterly became an extremely successful player in the LNG market. So successful that Royal Dutch Shell took them over. In terms of R & D the last BG Group annual report shows R & D at $33 million of which $19 million was with Brazilian third parties. Quite a contrast to the internal R & D with British Gas. National Grid Gas Transmission has a continuing need for R & D support but is limited by the regulator OFGEM as to what expenses can be passed through in customer charges. For example, the most high‐ profile research currently is Project GRAID (Gas Robotic Agile Inspection Device). This is a National Grid project in conjunction with three British Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to develop ways to accurately assess the condition of its pipework assets that cannot currently be inspected via conventional Pipeline Inspection Gauges (PIGs). It secured £5.7m of Ofgem funding. The third element is Centrica, the marketing company. Much R & D for marketing by British Gas plc and its nationalised predecessors was to compete with electricity. It also was a monopoly. Now Centrica through its British Gas brand sells electricity as well as gas so why should it spend on competing with itself? The other is that any developments funded by Centrica to improve gas could be taken up by its competitors. So, the type of R & D funded in the past is no longer economically viable. In conclusion, the gas R & D landscape has changed remarkably since the 90s. However, we must not let the past be forgotten. It is right to celebrate the real achievements of British Gas and its predecessor companies. The publication of these reports is part of that celebration. Rowland Sheard March 2018 BG Technology History of Engineering Research Station 1964 - 1993 j .··.¥, f:, i:t ... EFIS HISTORY OF THE ENGINEERING RESEARCH STATION 1964-1993 CONTENTS PAGE Foreword Part 1: The origins, establishment, growth and major milestones 1. Introduction 2. The London Team 3. The search for a new site 4 4. Moving to the North East - Benton Park Road 5 5. The new building 6 6. Initial management and organisation concepts 9 7. Initial technological developments 9 8. 1967 - the switch to gas transportation 10 9. ERS and the national ansmission system 11 10. Otterburn 1966 to 1978 12 11. The Spadeadam test facility 15 12. Low Thornley and Bishop Auckland 16 13. An overview of the major Transmission projects 19 14. The 19705 - the expansion of disibution activities 20 15. The British Gas School of Engineering 23 16. Management changes, comings and goings 24 17. On-line inspection 25 ERS ERS 18. Further management changes, comings and goings 26 19. Site development 27 20. Notable visitors and events 28 21. Offshore engineering 30 22. The Shannon era and recent years 32 23. Conclusion 34 Part 2: People who inuenced the progress of the station 1. Introduction 25 2. The Directorate 36 3. The Division Managers 50 4. Where are they now? 61 Part 3: The major technological success and the consequence and/or benefits for the industry 1. Introduction 67 2. Investigation of steam - naphtha continuous reforming plant 68 3. Leakage control 72 4. The advent of polyethylene 76 5. Why distribution pipes fail 81 6. Excavation and reinstatement 86 7. Trenchless technology at ERS 92 8. Distribution incident investigation 96 9. Gas detection 101 10. The gas control module 105 11. Low pressure pipe inspection (DIMP) 110 ERS ERS 12. Fracture propagation 114 13. Development of welding/ joining technology at ERS 118 14. The development of TD/1 122 15. Corrosion and corrosion control 126 16. History of on-line inspection at ERS 132 17. Metering and large volume control 139 18. Structural engineering 142 19. Compressor performance testing 146 20. History of network analysis at ERS 149 21. Telecommunications 152 ERS ERS Foreword In the early 19605 the Deputy Chairman of the Gas Council, Sir Kenneth Hutchinson, put forward a plan to initiate gas industry research with an emphasis on mechanical engineering, metallurgy and physics, in addition to that already underway in the area of chemical sciences. In December 1963 the Gas Council Research Committee formally agreed to set up an engineering research section, initially located on the London Research Station site at Fulham. The team grew rapidly and soon required far more extensive facilities than could be provided at Fulham. The long-debated thoughts of creating a new northern research station eventually bore fruit in the selection of a site in the new town of Killingworth, five miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Engineering Research Station opened ofcially in January 1966. This history of ERS attempts to capture the essence of the organisation which developed from those early conceptual decisions and the people who helped to make it what it became during the following quarter of a century. It has been arranged in three parts: Part 1 traces the origins, establishment and growth of ERS during 29 years following the decisions in 1963. Part2 focuses on the people who inuenced the progress of the Station and directed its activities Part3 chronicles the major technological successes and the consequences and benefits for the industry. I would like to thank the many members of ERS staff - past and present - who have contributed to the compilation of the History. Special thanks are due to Dr Les Mercer who contributed most of Part 1, to Dr Bob Weiner for editing the text and to John Gay who has so meticulously collected photographs of events since 1966. Because of the manner in which it has been assembled, the History is not a coherent unified text but a patchwork of contributions, views and reminiscences.