A high voltage test facility, the only one in the UK capable of generating the power of a lightning strike, has won a major contract to test National Grid substation equipment.
The contract comes as a major boost to the Hebburn facility's owners, the New and Renewable Energy Research Centre (NaREC), which was set up by regional development agency One NorthEast as a not-for-profit operation.
The contract is expected to take up at least 20% of the £500,000 turnover laboratory's capacity for the three-year duration of the contract.
If successful the contract is expected to be extended by at least a further two years.
Andrew Mill, chief executive of NaREC, said: "We anticipate this contract will give us the opportunity to grow the Hebburn business by 25% over the course of the contract. It will enable us to consolidate our current position and grow the services we offer."
Lisa Pinnington, contract manager at National Grid, said: "This is one of National Grid's key specialist outsourced contracts and will provide high voltage testing and calibration services for our high voltage substation equipment."
The test laboratory, which currently employs 10 specialist test engineers, provides testing and analysis services for transmission network operators such as the National Grid, distribution network operators such as Scottish Power and North-East Electricity Distribution, and manufacturers of electrical power equipment and accessories.
As a result of the contract, NaREC has also become the guardian of the UK's High Voltage Reference Measurement Standard.
Mr Mill said: "We are now the national standard for calibrating high voltage output, we are the only ones who possess the equipment that enables us to confirm if a company's equipment really produces or is resistant to the high voltage it claims - up to a level of 4m volts."
Since 2003, NaREC has also built world-leading testing and development facilities at Blyth in Northumberland, where it has a leading research laboratory developing the latest energy technology in photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, wind turbines and wave and tidal power, as well as specialist consultancy services and an offshore marine engineering capability. Across its various divisions it employs 60 staff.
Mr Mill said: "NaREC has had £15m of public money invested in it, and this year, our first year of being fully operational across all sites, we will have generated £4.5m turnover. In two or three years' time we will become self sufficient."