The 300,000 tonnes-a-year capacity facility was scheduled to start receiving waste for incineration on October 21, but an unexpected off site power fault meant the first loads only arrived on October 29.
Despite the delay which saw waste diverted to the Biffa-run Poplars landfill site in Cannock a spokeswoman for the company told letsrecycle.com the plant, believed to be worth in the region of 122 million, is still on track to meet its agreed timetable for operations.
She said: We are receiving waste now, and the fault, which wasnt in the facility, is nothing that couldnt be overcome. This is part and parcel of setting up any large-scale operation. The site has only recently been built but we are set to start landscaping, and we will also begin work on a visitors centre in early 2014.
Contract
The plant has been developed under a 25-year, 1 billion PFI-funded residual waste treatment and disposal contract which it signed with Staffordshire county council in July 2010, (see letsrecycle.com story).
Staffordshire is expected to provide 130,000 tonnes of residual household waste for the plant each year, with 60,000 tonnes-a-year from Sandwell metropolitan borough council, 40,000 tonnes from Warwickshire county council and 50,000 tonnes from Walsall metropolitan borough council.
The facility is also expected to generate 23MW of electricity for the national grid, enough to power around 32,000 homes.
“We are receiving waste now, and the fault, which wasnt in the facility, is nothing that couldnt be overcome.”
Veolia spokeswoman
Veolia received planning permission to build the facility at Four Ashes in the south of Staffordshire in February 2011 after modifying its proposals to include a smaller chimney stack and lower roof.
Work on the plant began in August 2011, with some 300 people working on the development at its peak (see letsrecycle.com story). Construction firm Clugston and its technology partner CNIM were responsible for the development of the plant.
The Staffordshire plant is one of a number of EfW facilities currently under development by the French-owned firm, with a facility in Shrewsbury currently being constructed at Battlefield Enterprise in Shrewsbury (see letsrecycle.com story) as well as a large-scale plant in Leeds (see letsrecycle.com story)
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