Local engineering group Quartzelec invited Rugby MP Mark Pawsey to visit their headquarters, at Castle Mound Way, to talk to him about their work in the global power and energy sectors.
As an independent, multi-disciplined service provider Quartzelec has over 100 years’ experience in supporting industry, infrastructure and the commercial and service sectors with a unique range of contracting and rotating machine services. Specifically, from their Rugby location the business focuses on providing maintenance and service support solutions for rotating electrical machines and Mark was shown how the team at Quartzelec can repair and refurbish these machines, often called the ‘workhorses of industry’ to ensure they remain operational throughout their design life and look to extend wherever possible. Quartzelec has a long heritage in the Rugby area, having previously been part of British Thompson-Houston and later GEC and ALSTOM before divested in 2001 to become Cegelec followed by a UK MBO acquisition by the incumbent management team in 2006, to be rebranded as Quartzelec in 2007. This gives the business a huge wealth of expertise to support rotating machines previously manufactured by these heritage companies and which are still operating across the world.
Mark met with Keith Evans, Quartzelec’s Operations Director, and members of the Rugby team who told Mark about the company’s long local history and their current work in the expanding energy generation sectors. Mark also spoke with them about the opportunities for companies such as Quartzelec as the UK moves towards a decarbonised energy sector. Harnessing the potential of hydro energy was also discussed, which Mark has previously spoken in support of in Parliament.
Speaking after the visit, Mark commented:
“Rugby has a great industrial heritage and Quartzelec, who grew out of British Thompson-Houston and then later GEC and ALSTOM, is a part of that history. It was fascinating to walk round their factory in Rugby and see the considerably sized copper coils manufactured here as well as the scale of the rotating machines, which are such a key part of the energy sector, being engineered locally. I am also grateful to Keith and his team for their time and for giving me such a comprehensive explanation of how these rotating machines work, and the vital skills that go into maintaining them.”
Mark continued:
“Ensuring that Rugby’s retains its engineering skills is a priority for me and so it was very useful to discuss with Keith and Quartzelec both the opportunities for the sector thanks to the decarbonisation agenda, but also the challenges that businesses such as theirs face. I will be raising these issues with Ministers so that we can continue to support this crucial sector of our economy.”
Keith Evans, Quartzelec’s Operations Director added:
“We are incredibly grateful to Mark who was so generous with his time as we took the opportunity to showcase our unique, purpose-built facility here in Rugby which is the flagship of our organisation, to meet our team here and understand their immense talent and expertise. We are a growing business with an intimate knowledge of the entire power chain and our specialist expertise and manpower within our group enables us to engineer and deliver effective solutions. We of course face challenges along the way and Mark was good enough to listen to our thoughts and will share them within his relevant working forums.”