Editorial
From the editor... W
www.eca.co.uk
Editorial, design and production CPL (Cambridge Publishers Ltd) 275 Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8JE Tel: 01223 477411 Web:
www.cpl.co.uk
Editor: Phil Lattimore Tel: 07802 870008
Email:
phil.lattimore@
ecatoday.co.uk
Design: Martin Cook Production: Darren Price For ECA
Managing editor: Carol Wrench Tel: 020 7313 4831 Email:
carol.wrench@eca.co.uk
Marketing and communications: Stefan Hay Tel 0207 313 4860 Email
stefan.hay@eca.co.uk
Print and distribution management: Mark Connolly Tel: 020 7313 4855 Email:
mark.connolly@
eca.co.uk
Advertisement sales Sales manager: Gareth Macfarlane Tel: 0845 226 0477 Email:
gareth@ecatoday.co.uk Sales executive: John Howe-Marshall Tel: 0845 226 0477
Email:
johnm@media-shed.co.uk Circulation to ECA members
Members of the ECA receive each issue of ECA Today on publication, and can request additional copies for individuals on their management team. Please email:
circulation@ecatoday.co.uk with any queries and to apply for such copies.
Subscribe to ECA Today
If you are not a member of the ECA and would like to receive ECA Today, individual copies cost £7 each (plus postage) and a subscription in the UK costs £25 per year. To subscribe, please email subscriptions@
ecatoday.co.uk.
The opinions expressed in editorial material do not necessarily represent the views of the Electrical Contractors’ Association. Unless specifi cally stated, goods or services mentioned in editorial or advertisements are not formally endorsed by the ECA, which does not guarantee or endorse or accept any liability for any goods and/or services featured in this publication.
©ECA, ESCA House, 34 Palace Court, London W2 4HY
ABC application approved August 2011
ECA T
oday would like to give a special acknowledgement to our launch partners and thank them for their continued support.
September 2012 ECA Today 3
Phil Lattimore Editor
Letters and emails
To contact ECA Today, send us an email at
mail@ecatoday.co.uk or write to Letters, ECA Today, CPL, 275 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8JE.
elcome to the September issue of ECA Today. As the country comes back down to earth after an amazing two weeks of Olympic action, it’s worth mentioning again what a terrifi c job the UK construction industry
made of delivering the London 2012 venues on time and on budget. Over the past two years or so since ECA Today was launched, we’ve covered electrical installation projects at a number of the iconic Games venues and the Olympic broadcasting hub, looking in detail at the impressive work ECA member companies have carried out. They have all contributed to a hugely successful experience for the country, with TV viewers all over the world also sharing in the action – and seeing for themselves the excellence that the UK construction industry can deliver.
Investment Nevertheless, as we all know, the UK construction industry is still suffering more than most during the current double-dip recession – declining by 3.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. Elsewhere in this issue (Executive Opinion, page 19) you can read about the ECA’s involvement in an industry-wide initiative – Creating Britain’s Future – to encourage government action to boost the construction industry and help kickstart the economy. Naturally, any such public spending would be more than welcomed in the electrical sector, which is also facing a very tough operating environment. One area in construction where there is growth – for the time being anyway – is in the rail sector, where heavy infrastructure investment is continuing on a wide range of projects. From Crossrail in London to station refurbishments across the country, these are already offering opportunities to electrical contractors, and will continue to do so. In this issue, on pages 36-41, we cover one of the most high- profi le station refurbishments of recent years, at King’s Cross in London, where ECA members have been involved in ensuring yet another successful landmark project is delivered to schedule and on budget.
Opportunities
In this issue, we also look at other areas where opportunities exist for members to seek new business using their existing expertise, knowledge and skills. These include the fast-growing market for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) (pages 42- 45) and in ever-more sophisticated heating and ventilation control systems (pages 32-35). And with the government’s Green Deal scheme still a subject of much debate, we address some of the key questions members are asking about the latest environmental initiative – and what it really means for our industry (pages 30-31). There’s much more too – including an article exploring some of the success stories of UK manufacturing in the electrical industry (pages 50-53). It’s just a glimpse of what the UK could achieve, given the right economic conditions and operating environment. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games may be over soon, but there are still good reasons to keep fl ying the fl ag for UK industry. See you again in November.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72