Brand design refresh

We are a mechanical technology business in the UK, and have had an established brand for over 30 years. We really need some ideas about refreshing (not completely changing) our brand logo and eventually our overall brand look/feel. Initially this job will be a logo refresh to present to the board so budget/turn around is very tight; but it may well become a full brand refresh exercise which could encompass building brand guidelines, collateral etc and becoming our future contracted graphics partner, working directly with me.
We need to maintain the AVK element, possibly lose the boxes, lift the blue colour and work on the font. We like the idea of an 'electric blue' colour, or a look that implies illumination as we are a power generation company ~Attached are low res versions. I have vectors for the chosen designer. I really hope someone can help me with this project! I'm trying to justify the potential of the brand although I lack the design skills. I'm paying for this myself on this occasion, so please keep costs low, but if the collaborative process is easy and the work of a consistent standard this could be a bigger project.
Thanks!