Former Balfour Beatty CEO Andrew McNaughton is joining Tidal Lagoon Power as director of engineering and construction to oversee the technical development of world-leading scheme to harness power from the rise and fall of the tides. He is taking over from Steve Hollingshead who has quit to become boss of Murphy.

McNaughton left Balfour Beatty almost a year ago as the depths of the company’s financial difficulties became apparent. He is a civil engineer with good experience of project delivery and will be in charge of building what will be the world’s first tidal lagoon power plant, subject to planning approval.

“Every so often, the UK infrastructure industry witnesses a major project with the ability to redefine the sector worldwide.  The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon is one such project, with a team and tier one supply chain that combines the best of British infrastructure with international expertise of the highest calibre.  I am thrilled to return to the industry’s frontline to oversee its delivery,” McNaughton said.

McNaughton has worked for 30 years as both a project manager and an executive officer he has been responsible for many of the country’s major infrastructure projects in recent years, including Terminals 2 and 5 at Heathrow, the widening of the M25 and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

He has served as a vice president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, is a UK Business Ambassador for the current Government and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

"Every so often, the UK infrastructure industry witnesses a major project with the ability to redefine the sector worldwide.  The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon is one such project.  am thrilled to return to the industry’s frontline to oversee its delivery”  - McNaughton 

 “Andrew has been one of the leading lights in UK infrastructure for many years. We both share a view that the UK has a critical need for a new generation of power assets. Our vision is to build a scalable blueprint for a new form of power asset – Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon– and then deliver a series of tidal lagoons at a levelised cost of energy that is the same as nuclear power and combined cycle gas turbines,” said chief executive of Tidal Lagoon Power Mark Shorrock

The project is being promoted by Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) Plc a special purpose vehicle company established specifically to construct, own and operate the world’s first tidal lagoon power plant at Swansea Bay.  The 320MW installed capacity project, developed by Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd, has a design life of 120 years and a net annual power output of over 500 GWh; enough to meet the annual electricity requirement of over 155,000 homes, or over 90% of homes in the Swansea Bay area.

The company is steered by experts in major infrastructure design and delivery.  Its board is led by one time Atkins chairman Keith Clarke as non-executive chairman, supported by a governance board that includes Shard project manager Bernard Ainsworth and Atkins London 2012 project director Mike McNicholas.

Major delivery partnerships announced to date are: Atkins as Client’s Engineer; General Electric and Andritz Hydro as Turbine Preferred Bidders; and Prudential and InfraRed Capital Partners as Equity Partners.

In December 2014, the project was named in HM Treasury’s National Infrastructure Plan, the Welsh Government’s Wales National Infrastructure Plan, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s investment plan. 

Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change will determine the project’s application for a Development Consent Order by June 10 this year.  The first phase of negotiations with the Department of Energy & Climate Change on a potential Contract for Difference for the project were announced in the Chancellor’s Budget in March 2015.

Tidal Lagoon Power is hoping to drive a critical change in the UK's energy mix by developing infrastructure to harness natural power from the rise and fall of the tides.  The Swansea Bay project would establishes a scalable blueprint for a series of sixUK tidal lagoons that could meet up to 8% of UK electricity demand.