WHEN US power giant Enron collapsed the reverberations were felt across the globe.

The effects of the bankruptcy were felt even in the North-East - not least at Nepco Europe, based on Teesside, which had fatally close links with Enron.

The ailing energy giant was Nepco's parent company, so when Enron collapsed, the Stokesley outpost was dragged down with it, with the loss of 144 jobs.

Based on Stokesley Industrial Estate, Nepco Europe's design engineers worked primarily on power stations. Among its staff were highly-skilled draughtsmen, computer-aided designers and engineers.

At the turn of the year, it emerged the Texan power company had used accounting practices, outlawed in Britain, to hide massive debts, eventually becoming bankrupt.

The scandal then unfolded when it was revealed its auditors had destroyed thousands of documents and e-mails.

After the Nepco closure, talks were held between three members of the management team, banks and accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was handling the administration.

Although Nepco was profitable - it had a major power station contract worth £80m in the pipeline - administrators said the company could not continue to operate following the collapse of its parent company.

But former Nepco managers Phil Stokes, George Sayers and Mike Hoggan were able to secure financial backing and, 17 days later, phoenix-like, NEL Power was formed.

The company is now secure and is working on a £10m contract to provide a gas-fired power station on the Isle of Man.

NEL Power was formed in December 2001 with 13 employees. It now employs 104 staff.

Phil Stokes, managing director, said: "We'd lost all of our contracts, so we got together and formed NEL Power. We managed to recover a contract in the Isle of Man and we've now secured 20 or so other contracts for various sums, so we now have quite healthy balance sheets."

Mr Stokes said the company was diversifying into other commercial sectors, a branching-out which has seen the creation of a number of subsidiary companies.

What started as NEL Power has now grown to include NEL Operations and Maintenance, NEL Recruitments, NEP Transportation and NEL Engineering.

The group also has plans to start a procurement business.