SUEZ site-seeing | Part 2 | Severnside energy recovery centre

Following his first visit to materials recycling facility (MRF) in Avonmouth, External Affairs Director, Dr Adam Read continued his backstage tour of SUEZ sites this week. Adam is putting together a series of short blogs giving you a flavour of what goes on at each of the sites he visits.

Second stop – Severnside Energy Recovery Centre (SERC)…

Next up was our Severnside energy-from-waste (EfW) plant not far from the material recycling facility in Avonmouth, a joint venture with the West London Waste Authority (West Waste). 

This 370,000 tonnes per annum facility has been operational for 12 months, taking residual waste from six borough’s in West London. These include Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames, and more recently from Bristol as well.

The site is most impressive, both architecturally and from an operational perspective, processing the residual waste into 37MW of power, which is enough to run 70,000 households based on average consumption levels.

The waste arrives by train which are run out of two transfer stations in West London, one in Brentford and the other in Ruislip, more on those later!

The plant operates 24/7 and at night only four members of staff are needed to keep it running smoothly, which is quite remarkable.

Again the site was in great condition, with virtually no litter, and the maintenance and upkeep teams were able to minimise any downtime.

Meanwhile, the quality checkers and crane handlers working in and around the tipping hall were making sure no ‘oversized’ items made their way into the grate, as this could result in a shutdown for maintenance.

My next will be West London, visiting the two transfer stations. Read all about it in the next blog!