Careers in Focus: Drax senior engineer Rob Ghent

Rob Ghent is senior performance engineer at Drax Power Station near Selby in North Yorkshire. He has worked at Drax for seven years, in power stations for over 20 years and in process performance since 1992. Ghent trained with CEGB for a power engineering training scheme , which included a three-year electromechanical engineering degree at Aston University and two years as a CEGB trainee based at Hams Hall Power Station near Birmingham:

What have been the main positive influences/drivers for you over the course of your career?

The main positive driver behind my career has been a real personal interest in power plants. I’ve always been very interested in them. A particularly important interest at the moment is the work we’re doing on fuel assessment. But the work we do changes continually and has developed over the years: there has been a huge variety and that constantly motivates me.

What do you see as the main issues facing the UK process industries today and how do these issues impact your role at Drax?

The biggest issue facing process engineering within power plants at the moment is the environment and how best to protect it. We need to become more efficient, burn less fuel and process less emissions. To do that we work very closely with Drax’s Environment department and cross functional departmental communication is key. The main impact on my role has been an ever more stringent monitoring of processes and the need to continually optimise and improve those processes. At Drax we have been improving every year and that is immensely satisfying. For example, we have invested £100 million in upgrading our steam turbines, which on completion will increase the overall efficiency of the plant to very close to 40%, reduce CO2 emissions by a million tonnes per year and will play a big part in our plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 17.5% by 2011.

Which technologies, services, support mechanisms etc, most help you to deal with these challenges?

At Drax we deal with these challenges in a number of ways. Most importantly we take a holistic approach, not divided up by department but working closely with other in-house departments. There is also a great wealth of knowledge and experience outside the organisation. We talk to technical experts who’ve faced similar challenges, fuels experts and other service providers. So all in all we use a joined up approach and try to make the most of experience from a range of other sources.

In terms of the previous question, what other developments would you like to see towards increasing the effectiveness of your role going forward?

I really don’t have many restraints at the moment. Improving plant environmental performance, plant efficiency and plant reliability are central to everything we do at Drax and we just get on with it.

Any other points or advice for people seeking to develop their careers in the process industries?

Getting young people involved and excited about power plants, processes and engineering is a passion of mine and Drax knows it’s crucial for our industry as a whole too. That is why I lend a hand when sixth form colleges visit the site: I provide talks about power plants and the career opportunities they provide and well as process performance in general. Drax sponsors Engineering Inspirations North Yorkshire and I am a judge in July 2010 which is the seventh year running we’ve done that and it’s helped get countless young people fired up about engineering. This September, Drax is sponsoring along with other large energy companies the European Conference on Coal Research and its applications which is taking place at Leeds University and I’m on the organising committee.

My main message is that process engineering is a rewarding career, it’s enjoyable, interesting and it is an opportunity to make a real difference to some of the biggest issues we face as a country. This includes creating a better environment through addressing the emissions from burning fossil fuels and diversifying into renewable biomass as sustainable fuel source.

Return to Process Engineering home page