Aggreko takes home gold for contract to light up Olympic Games

Aggreko, the generators giant, will pocket £50m from providing the temporary power for 39 venues in seven different locations at this summer's Olympic Games.

The company's generators will power the velodrome, the aquatics stadium and all other venues at London 2012's Stratford base, as well as stadia in Cardiff, Coventry, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and Weymouth, which hosts the Olympic sailing.

Aggreko is laying 1,000km of cable and installing 3,500 distribution panels for the Games, and will have 150 staff working on the contract.

Last month Aggreko said the Games contract, plus a hunger for power from Africa and Japan, had encouraged it to spend £350m on its fleet this year, £30m more than previously planned.

Aggreko added that its underlying revenues – stripping out major events such as the Olympics and last year's Asian Games – jumped 21 per cent in the first three months of the year. Revenues at its local division also rose 21 per cent in the period.