A partnership between Shanks Group and Scottish and Southern Energy has today (April 7) beaten SITA UK to be named as the first choice for the Barnsley Doncaster and Rotherham Waste Partnerships 750 million waste PFI contract.
The Shanks-led consortium, which is known as 3SE, has been chosen as preferred bidder in principle for the 25-year deal with a proposal that focuses on the development of a 250,000 tonne-a-year capacity mechanical biological treatment facility on Bolton Road in Manvers, Rotherham.
Residual household waste from Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham councils would be sent for treatment at the MBT facility. The plant will recover a range of recyclables including compost, glass and stone/grit, plastics and metals, as well as a solid recovered fuel.
This fuel would then be sent on to a multi-fuel plant to be developed by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) next to the existing coal-fired power station at Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire. Here, it would be used to generate electricity.
A third site, the Grange Lane transfer station in Barnsley, would be used to hold waste in bulk and for shredding operations. Shanks will also build an anaerobic digestion facility at the Bolton Road site to produce energy from the organic material recovered by the MBT process.
Under the contract, Shanks will be responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of the proposed waste management facilities and for their ongoing operation and management.
Delighted’
Tom Drury, chief executive of Shanks Group Plc, said: “We are delighted that BDR has selected Shanks’ joint venture, 3SE, as its preferred bidder for such a valuable and high profile PFI contract.
This award recognises Shanks’ expertise in advanced and sustainable municipal waste processing technologies, together with SSE’s leadership in sustainable energy generation, and brings the total of UK municipal waste under management by Shanks to more than 1.5 million tonnes.
The award was also welcomed by Rhys Stanwix, director of thermal development at SSE, who said: “We believe that 3SE provides a sustainable, best-in-class solution for BDR, not only recovering valuable recyclables but also generating energy from organic and residual waste.
We are very pleased to be Shanks’ joint venture partner in 3SE, which combines their market leading expertise in waste management with our expertise in sustainable energy generation.”
The announcement of the Shanks/SSE consortium as the first choice comes just over a year after Shanks bid and a tender from SITA Lend Lease emerged as the two remaining bidders for the BDR deal, which has 77.4 million of PFI funding (see letsrecycle.com story).
Further discussions
The three-council partnership and 3SE will now enter into further discussions over the next few months to finalise the contractual terms on which the preferred bidder will be appointed. The councils said that final award of the contract would take place later this year.
The scheme is also subject to planning permission. If this is secured as hoped, construction of the MBT and AD plants, is expected to begin in the Spring of 2013 with the facilities due to open in 2015.
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