BIG Creds

We’re proud to showcase the way we've solved recruitment problems. Discover how BPS World has made a difference to Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG).

BIG

BPS adopts long-term partnered approach to hiring for a rapidly-growing Independent Power Producer.

This is BIG’s story

Key Achievements

Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG) is an Independent Power Producer (IPP). The company is investing in the construction and operation of a UK-based fleet of low carbon and renewable power plants fuelled with waste derived fuels.

BPS has been partnered with BIG throughout their ambitious expansion, assisting with:

Senior Hires for key operational and technical positions, including:

o Head of People & Culture
o Senior Asset Manager
o Head of Business Performance
o Principal Reliability Engineer
o Procurement Manager UK
o Energy Works Hull - Senior Plant Manager
o Energy Works Hull - Operations Manager
o Energy Works Hull - Maintenance Manager
o Levenseat – General Manager
o Head of Engineering

Market mapping of the UK green energy landscape, identifying trends, competitors and available talent.
Delivery of concierge service, including highly-qualified shortlists, assisted interviews and bespoke candidate attraction collateral.

The Results

The Partner

BIG is a renewable energy provider that is developing one of the UK’s largest portfolios of biomass and waste-to-energy facilities. To date the Group has invested over £450m in its facilities.

The Group has achieved a leading position in the UK’s biomass and waste to energy sectors by establishing a portfolio of assets with the scale, diversification and operational synergies required to attract institutional investors such as UK and overseas pension funds.

BIG is differentiated from other investors in the biomass and EfW sector by their long-term investment approach and their focus on mid-scale plants throughout the development cycle, from new greenfield sites to facilities already in operation.

BIG is one of the largest investors in the sector with seven major thermal biomass and EfW facilities and a portfolio of smaller Anaerobic Digestion plants all based in the UK. Together, BIG’s projects will provide enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of over 210,000 homes each year.

At the time of our initial engagement, BIG was undergoing wholescale growth with its company strategy focussed on increasing its level of investment and control of power plants, while exploring portfolio-wide opportunities to add value to its assets.

Headquartered in Reading, with seven plants spread across the UK, BIG’s aim was to increase its operational responsibilities. This would involve acquiring the O&M workforce on each plant. This integration of additional work would mark a significant change to the make-up of the Group.

Fundamentally, the business plan is that the power plant fleet will be built up from a combination of the construction of new facilities and the acquisition of operational assets. Over an initial five-year plan it is anticipated that the fleet will grow to between 10 and 15 plants, with a generating capacity of between 200 MW and 300 MW.

The Challenge

To deliver against its ambitious strategy and deliver on crucial projects, BIG needed to expand its operational capability.

However, to do so would necessitate the expansion of its core leadership and wider senior teams.

This would include the hiring of a Head of HR and Head of Business Performance to perform key people and commercial roles within a multi-faceted engineering organisation. In addition, a UK Procurement Manager was secured to develop the function and processes from scratch.

Furthermore, crucial to BIG’s growth was its delivery against major projects, namely the Levenset Renewable Energy Limited (LREL) project and at Energy Works Hull.

BIG is the largest shareholder in Energy Works Hull having invested £100m+ in the project, one which is entering the final stages of commissioning prior to being operational.

As BIG ramped-up its operational capability, BPS secured key Plant Manager, Operations Manager and Maintenance Manager personnel.

Meanwhile, the Levenseat Renewable Energy Limited (LREL) project consists of a c.12MW Energy from Waste (EfW) plant, made up of a Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) fed gasifier and an adjacent materials recycling facility (MRF). The project is at the late stages of commissioning and has the potential for further expansion through the development of a second adjacent EfW plant.

This complex project is being headed-up by additional partners in Zouk Capital and Levenseat Ltd with BPS successful in hiring a General Manager with the essential remit of implementing new contracts and optimisation projects where additional project value can be achieved such as private wire and heat offtake.