History

The history of Scandpower is a fascinating one. Established for a specific purpose, Scandpower has grown in size and scope, becoming a leader in risk and safety-related services as well as development and sales of specialised software for the petroleum, nuclear power and transport industries.

The first chapter in Scandpower’s history began on a summer day in 1971. Four of Norway’s largest companies – Norsk Hydro, Elkem, Hafslund and Årdal & Sundal Verk – established the company at the urging of the then Norwegian Minister of Industry, Finn Lied. The objective was to form an engineering company to target the growing nuclear power and petroleum industries.

In its early years Scandpower was primarily involved in investigation and planning activities for the nuclear power industry. When plans to develop the Norwegian nuclear industry were shelved, the company turned its focus to the rapidly expanding petroleum industry. The international nuclear industry remained an important market. From the start this industry had taken safety, quality and environmental issues very seriously, helping to extend the knowledge base in risk management.

In the wake of accidents on the Ekofisk oil platforms in the mid-1970s there were increasing calls to systematically promote safety in the Norwegian oil & gas industry. Scandpower performed the first risk analysis, known as the “Condeep analysis”, in the late 1970s together with several companies in the industry. Scandpower performed its first HAZOP (HAZard and OPerability) study in 1984.

In 2000 a tragic train accident at Åsta in Eastern Norway led to efforts to improve safety in the transport sector, particularly in the railway industry. Scandpower immediately stepped up to the challenge, soon gaining expertise and experience in this area.

In response to the growing demand for its services, Scandpower established new offices in Uppsala, Sweden (1988), Bergen, Norway (2000), Stavanger, Norway (2001), Houston, USA (2002), Beijing, China (2002), and most recently, Trondheim, Norway, and Gothenburg, Sweden (2006).

At the beginning of 2005 Scandpower’s employees assumed ownership of the company.

In January 2007 Scandpower joined forces with the Swedish firm RELCON AB, a market leader in nuclear safety and the developer of RiskSpectrum software, a cutting-edge risk analysis tool. The result of the merger between Scandpower’s operations in Sweden and RELCON is Relcon Scandpower AB, which has offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Uppsala.

In the end of 2009 Scandpower became a member of the Lloyd’s Register Group. Together we form a world leading independent risk management organisation that works to help to improve our clients' quality, safety, environmental and business performance – because life matters.

Today the entire Scandpower group has a staff of over 250 highly skilled professionals from 20 countries, 40 % of whom are women. Scandpower provides risk and safety-related services as well as development and sales of specialised software to customers worldwide. Within the Lloyds' Register Group we are now part of a company with truly global reach with  280 offices in 80 countries and with approximately 7500 employees.