The facility has been built as part of a £500 million contract between Gloucestershire county council and a consortium of Spanish-owned Urbaser and civil engineering firm Balfour Beatty, agreed in 2013, re-signed in February 2016 following delays to the facility.
As part of the next phase of commissioning of the plant, testing will include the drying out of the refractory and steam blowing. Urbaser Balfour Beatty said it is confident that the facility will begin operations this summer.
The facility features an inclined moving grate and will be capable of exporting around 14.5 MW of energy to the national grid.
“Each phase of the commissioning process is interdependent, with the preceding test informing the timing of subsequent tests,” the company said in a statement.
Commissioning
Craig Kirk, project commercial director at Urbaser Balfour Beatty Gloucestershire said: “Commissioning is a routine element of construction for power facilities such as the Gloucestershire Energy from Waste facility. It is not a time exact science as there are many elements to it, particularly in a complex engineering build such as this.
“Each week, we analyse performance and as a result make adjustments to the process and scheduling in order to make the facility ready for operations. It is critically important that we test that all the equipment and processes are working as they should before the facility is operational. As part of this, we are working with the Environment Agency who are monitoring the performance throughout.”
The energy from waste plant has caused some opposition in Gloucestershire, the latest phase of which saw a community group taking its opposition to the High Court claim over the award of a contract for the plant (see letsrecycle.com story).
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