Swiss technology chosen for Kidderminster EfW

The start of construction work on Mercia Waste Managements energy-from-waste (EfW) facility near Kidderminster may finally get underway soon after a Swiss-based technology firm was chosen to build the plant.

Mercia Waste Management today (May 23) announced that it had awarded Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) the engineering, procurement and construction contract after a lengthy procurement process.

And, after years of wrangling over the EfW contract for the plant signed in December 1998 with the Hartlebury plant only granted planning permission in July 2012 after a public inquiry Mercia has now revealed that an expected 33-month construction period will begin shortly before commissioning starts in Spring 2017.

Meanwhile, Worcestershire county council and Herefordshire council have also agreed a variation to the two authorities 25-year residual waste contract with Mercia Waste under which the plant is being developed.

The councils were advised by legal firm Eversheds over changes to the 926 million public private partnership (PPP) contract will now see the two councils acting as funders for the plant, using prudential borrowing to lend money for the project to Mercia.

The news follows protracted discussions over financing the project involving the two councils, Mercia and also the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is providing PFI credits worth 5.5 million for each year of the contract (see letsrecycle.com story).

Envirecover

Once operational, the Envirecover EfW plant at the Hartlebury Trading Estate will have the capacity to treat 200,000 tonnes per year of waste from Worcestershire and Herefordshire while generating enough electricity to power a town the size of nearby Kidderminster, according to Mercia.

Mercia and its sister company Severn Waste Services are joint ventures with two shareholders FCC Environment and Urbaser Ltd and were established to deliver the Worcestershire and Herefordshire contract.

Ian Barber, manager at Mercia, said: After a diligent planning and financial negotiation process, we are delighted to be moving onto the construction phase of this project. The initial work will be focused on preparing the ground and foundations of the building. For a project this size, we have carefully chosen our contractor, HZI, due to its proven ability to deliver and professionalism in construction.

HZI

Swiss firm HZI has also in turn appointed UK company Interserve Plc as subcontractor for the civil components of the plant.

Franz-Josef Mengede, chief executive of HZI said: We are very pleased by the trust of Mercia Waste Management in HZIs capability to deliver projects on time and budget. Our continued successful project delivery in the UK enables us to propose most competitive bids combined with high efficiency technology setups. We are convinced that the facility will be an added value for both councils in terms of sustainable waste management and are proud to have been selected as the main EPC contractor by Mercia.

Mercia currently employs around 250 personnel and said that it expects to employ an additional 300 people during the construction of the plant, which will have an operating staff of around 40 people.