My Journey
I started out in engineering at Leicester University, and it didn’t go well. I struggled to mature and appreciate the opportunity, but instead avoided work, choosing to prioritise less beneficial activities.
When I was at my lowest, I walked into my tutor’s office to tell him I was leaving; it just wasn’t working. For reasons that to this day I don’t know, instead of accepting this from a failing, immature student, he chose to make me an offer: “Get through your second year without re-sits and I’ll get you a job in Australia for your industrial placement year.”
I had done nothing to deserve it. I had not earned it in any way, but there it was — an offer that turned everything around for me. I will be forever grateful to the late Emeritus Professor of Engineering, Paul Gostelow.
Industrial Placement 1998 – 1999 (Australia)
With this incentive, I managed to get some work done and scraped through my second year without resits, thanks to some generous averaging rules, so in 1998 I started my industrial placement year working for Alstom Australia in Sydney.
I spent the first eight months of the year as part of a team designing and building a combined cycle power plant in Queensland.
Following this, I took an opportunity to join the commissioning team in Cairns for two new Royal Australian Navy hydrographic survey ships: HMAS Leeuwin and HMAS Melville.
Following the year out and seeing engineering in practice, I went on to graduate from Leicester with the highest year mark for my final-year project.
Alstom Power 2000 – 2008 (UK, US, France)
Following the year out and seeing engineering in practice, I went on to graduate from Leicester with the highest year mark for my final-year project — a great turnaround!
I obtained a job again with Alstom, this time in the UK, where I won Graduate of the Year for my work on the design of a combustion rig for a large gas turbine.
I then took a permanent role in the aerospace controls team and, after several years working largely out of Cincinnati, I joined the A380 flight test and certification programme, representing the GE engine manufacturer.
E.ON Engineering (2008 – 2013)
After eight years with Alstom, I moved to E.ON as a gas turbine engineer. However, a new opportunity soon opened up to get involved in a new renewable technology that E.ON was pursuing: concentrated solar power (CSP).
After building up a competency development programme in this new technology and managing the technical aspects of several due diligence activities, I led E.ON’s engineering activities during the construction of two 50MW parabolic trough plants in Spain.
Rafiki Power (2013 – 2016) UK, Germany, East Africa
Following a colleague’s success through an E.ON “Dragons’ Den” innovation process, I was asked, alongside a colleague, to help set up a new E.ON business aimed at providing power to those without access to a grid.
The new company, Rafiki Power, was established in Tanzania, where 10 microgrids were deployed, utilising solar, batteries, and smart metering technologies to serve the local populations.
Uniper Energy Services (2016 – 2022) UK, Germany, Global
After leaving Rafiki Power following the spin-off of Uniper from E.ON, I joined Uniper’s Energy Services business. This role built on my experience in new business development and establishing strong client relationships through sales and business development activities.
Projects developed and presented to the Uniper Board included remote, off-grid energy applications aimed at reducing reliance on fossil fuels and creating new decentralised decarbonisation solutions for industrial customers. These projects involved developing and delivering tailored suites of decarbonisation technologies to meet the specific requirements of individual industrial processes.
Uniper Low Carbon Services 2022 – 2026
Following a Uniper reorganisation and the cessation of external work, I focused on the transformation of Uniper’s own assets to make them fit for a low-carbon, flexible world.
This involved working on a variety of projects, from very large carbon capture projects, where I held the role of Technical Project Manager, to smaller projects where we considered the possibility of converting large CCGTs to open cycle operation or the addition of synchronous compensation.
A large amount of this time was spent supporting Uniper’s Dutch business, including the reconfiguration of multiple power and steam generation assets to support a new customer base and ultimately securing the financial decision for the ongoing conversion of a coal plant to run on biomass.
New beginnings…
Nic Allen Consulting – 2026 onwards….
In 2025, Uniper created a voluntary leave initiative to resize the business in preparation for a potential future divestment from the German state, a situation brought about by Uniper’s exposure at the start of the Ukraine war.
This provided me with the opportunity to leave Uniper and continue working as an engineering consultant, albeit now for myself rather than through a large corporate company.
I’m confident that the broad skills and experience gained through my technical understanding of a wide variety of energy technologies and systems, combined with my commercial and business experience, will enable me to support the energy and industrial sectors across a diverse range of projects.