Latest news: North West engineering jobs boost

A Manchester-based company is set to create up to 340 new roles to meet the expanding needs of the renewables market. 29/06/2011 

Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd has announced the roles and said that the majority of jobs will be located at a new purpose-built facility, currently under construction at Princess Park in Manchester.

The state-of-the-art building, set to be called The Renewable Energy Engineering Centre, is the firm’s first centre of its kind outside Germany and will focus on the design and build of transmission systems to connect power networks to offshore wind farms. 

The need to invest in offshore wind generation has led to a thriving market for high voltage grid connection (HVDC) systems to transport power.

‘The UK's Round 3 offshore wind farms will be sited much further out to sea than previous developments and so will need HVDC technology to overcome the power losses that occur when bringing electricity ashore over longer distances,’ said John Willcock, director of major projects for Siemens.

The new, high technology roles will be on offer to both recent graduates and experienced professionals and Siemens plans to recruit direct from universities which are active in electrical and power engineering.