Herts names Veolia preferred bidder for EfW deal
28 April 2011
Hertfordshire county council has today (April 28) named Veolia Environmental Services Aurora as preferred bidder for its £800 million, PFI-funded waste contract.
The French-owned company was appointed ahead of a rival bid by energy company E.On and will now be charged with delivering a large-scale energy-from-waste incinerator under the 25-year deal.
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- Veolia ES Aurora is set to develop an EfW facility at New Barnfield under the Hertfordshire waste contract
The decision to name Veolia as preferred bidder follows what the council called a “lengthy discussion” of its Waste Cabinet Panel this morning.
Veolia intends to develop the plant, which is set to handle at least 180,000 tonnes of material each year and as much as 270,000 tonnes, at the council-owned New Barnfield site in South Hatfield.
It is developing the process as a ‘Mechanical Pre-Treatment Plant’, which is designed to recover as much recyclable material as possible from incoming waste before the remainder is combusted to produce energy.
Hertfordshire expects the pre-treatment process to increase household recycling rates by a further 3%.
Announcing the successful bidder, John Wood, director of environment and commercial services at Hertfordshire, said: “We have good recycling rates in Hertfordshire – currently at 48% - and recycling is something we will continue to encourage strongly.
“The minimum tonnage of waste we could send to this new facility (180,000 tonnes) gives us the freedom to get recycling rates above 75%.”
Generate
Once complete, it is anticipated that the Veolia facility will be able to generate 26MW of renewable electricity, which will be used to subsidise the cost of the service to the county council. Development is still dependent on planning permission being achieved.
The next stage of the contract process is for the details to be finalised before Veolia officially signs the deal at some point between May and July 2011.
Jean-Dominique Mallet, chief executive of Veolia Environmental Services (UK), said: “We are delighted to have been selected as preferred bidder by Hertfordshire county council for our proposal which is based on a proven technology and experience and combines recycling and energy recovery to provide urgently needed infrastructure.”
Mr Mallet added that the waste management company will embark on a community engagement and consultation process before submitting a planning application for the plant by the end of 2011.
The project received £115.3 million in PFI funding in March 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) and named a two-bidder shortlist for the contract in July 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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