RSS expands power projects division and recruits manager

Middle East temperature control and power rental company Rental Solutions & Services (RSS) is expanding its international power projects business and has recruited an experienced power rentals manager, Peter den Boogert, to head up the operation.

Mr den Boogert, a Netherlands national, has almost 10 years experience in managing power rental projects, first with GE Energy Rentals in Spain and subsequently with Energyst, HUNE and more recently as an independent power consultant.

He told IRN that the Global Power Projects division had been focused on work in the Middle East close to its Dubai base in 2010 but was now targeting contracts in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and Latin America.

"We have a very strong position in the Gulf and emerging countries like Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq", he said, "We are now starting business development in South Africa and in the second half of the year in South America."

RSS benefits from being able to co-locate with existing facilities owned by its parent company, UK oil and gas services company ITS Tubular Services.

Mr den Boogert said that RSS was still only three years old and was not yet ready to take on massive 250 MW temporary power projects. "We have quoted to 110 and 150 MW - these are the sizes where we are comfortable", he said.

He said RSS already had a professional power projects team in place and that it would be further developed; "Within three years we will be able to do [the biggest jobs]."

RSS currently has a 60 MW power fleet and said it will have around 150 MW by the end of 2011, rising to 300 by the end of 2012. "We have the funding if there are large projects", said Mr den Boogert.

He told IRN that its young power generation fleet - assembled in the Middle East using Cummins engines - was a benefit in terms of fuel efficiency, keeping costs down for its clients.

In addition, he said RSS will individually engineer a power project, and cited one current tender project where for a 7% increase in rental costs produced a 22% saving on running costs for the end customer. "We will supply engineered solutions - there is not a single international power project that we treat like another", he told IRN.

Mr den Boogert said RSS's ability to offer a package of power, temperature control and water (it rents portable desalination plants) was another advantage, particularly in areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

RSS is not shying away from these difficult markets. "We'll look carefully at the risk factor before doing it, but we have to be in these countries", said Mr den Boogert, "[The security situation] will not stop us from going there."

The company's strategy of seeking partnerships and joint ventures with local companies - which it has used in the Gulf States - will be followed in the new markets as well.