Atkins chief executive Uwe Krueger: UK power infrastructure must be “fixed fast” to avoid blackouts
The chief executive of engineering firm Atkins has said that the UK's power infrastructure must be "fixed fast", in order to minimise the risk of blackouts during winter time.
"In the UK, we're suffering from decades of underinvestment into the grid, and that's an area which needs to be fixed fast to avoid outages in winter time," Krueger told City PM
He added that, while the government is right to scale back subsidies for renewables, this must be done "carefully" to ensure the market remains stable.
Read more: Atkins weathers oil price storm in nuclear push
The FTSE 250-listed company today reported a 38 per cent annual increase in pre-tax profit to £53.8m for the six months ended 30 September.
This was following a nine per cent increase in revenue to £904.6m, from £831.4m during the same period last year.
Krueger said Atkins' move towards the nuclear energy sector had "almost fully compensated" for the effects of low oil prices on its oil and gas business.
Additionally, the company expects to benefit "substantially over the next decade" from the decommissioning of old, uneconomic nuclear power plants.