Peterborough 30-Year Residual Waste Treatment Contract Signed

Pennon Group Plc is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Viridor Peterborough Limited (UK), has signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with Peterborough City Council (PCC) to treat the council’s residual waste over the next 30 years.

The contract requires the development of an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at the council’s existing recycling site in the Fengate industrial area. The facility will have a capacity to process up to 85,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum, is designed to achieve around 94% landfill diversion and will have a net electrical power generation capacity of 7.25MW.

Peterborough currently produces approximately 90,000 tonnes of waste per year, which is set to increase to 140,000 tonnes by 2040. 43% is currently recycled, with the remaining 50,000 tonnes of residual waste currently sent to landfill. The proposed solution will be able to handle changes in waste arising throughout the lifetime of the facility as well as to provide treatment for commercial and industrial waste.

Viridor submitted a Section 73 planning application in September 2012 to gain a number of minor variations to the planning permission achieved by the Peterborough City Council in May 2010. Viridor secured planning permission for the proposed changes in January 2013 following an almost-unanimous positive decision by the council’s planning committee.

The project requires capital investment of approximately £75 million and the plant will be built by a joint venture between Babcock & Wilcox Volund and Interserve Construction as the engineering and procurement contractor to Viridor. Capital funding for the project will be provided by PCC via its prudential borrowing facilities. The project is expected to be earnings enhancing in its first full year of operation.

Viridor’s stated strategy involves the fulfilment of long-term service contracts, and the construction and operation of recycling plants and of plants generating energy from the residual waste which cannot be recycled.