IEE Power Division: Chairman´s address. Consulting engineering for power projects

The different roles of manufacturers, supply authorities and consultants in the British electrical-supply industry date from the very start of electrical power engineering at the end of the 19th century. The paper traces the role of the consulting-engineering profession in the development of the home supply industry through the men who founded practices at that time leading to the development of today´s British consulting engineering firms which serve the power industry of the world. The development of these firms is shown throughout the years to have depended on engineering, economic and political factors. Consulting-engineering work is illustrated with reference to two projects: an unusual power station project in Mexico and the topical Hong Kong mass-transit system. The changing problems of the consulting-engineering profession are considered in the light of current economic pressures, energy patterns and the increase of nationalism overseas, and it is shown why the services of British consulting engineers have never been in greater demand throughout the world than at the present time.