MEMBER’S PRESS RELEASE: Edina wins contract to upgrade Sussex Southern Water CHP plant

Water and wastewater service provider Southern Water has announced upgrades to its combined heat and power (CHP) plants across its wastewater treatment plants.

The site upgrades to the CHP plants include: Gravesend, Kent; Goddards Green, Sussex; Milbrook, Hampshire; Fullerton, in Andover, Hampshire; and Budds Farm in Havant, Hampshire.

Leading supplier, installer and maintenance provider for gas-to-power solutions, Edina Group, won the contract to replace the existing CHP plant at Goddards Green, Sussex, with a new high-efficiency MWM-manufactured TCG 2016 V16 800kWe CHP engine.

MWM generating sets are world-renowned for achieving maximum electrical and thermal efficiency, low operating and servicing costs and high reliability and availability. The new generating set will be containerised at Edina’s manufacturing facility based in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, further reducing site installation time, cost and carbon emissions.

Martin Ross, Southern Water energy manager, said:

The capturing of biogas is a double win because not only do we collect free fuel but we also prevent the release of methane which has a global-warming potential 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The biogas produced during the wastewater treatment process is used as fuel and is used to generate electricity via the CHP plant. The electricity generated is then used to power the site's infrastructure and offset operational cost through surplus energy exported to the National Grid.

It is anticipated that the new CHP plants will increase electricity generation by 17%. The engine upgrades at Budds Farm will generate 95% of its power demand and Millbrook will be completely self-sufficient.

In 2015, Southern Water generated 77 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power through CHP application, equivalent to powering over 20,000 homes for a year and saving the equivalent of 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Tony Fenton, Joint Managing Director, Edina Group, comments:

As the sole UK and Ireland distributor for market-leading MWM engines, we are delighted to be awarded the contract at Goddards Green. Our vast knowledge of biogas CHP and working relationship with many water providers makes Edina the perfect choice to deliver Southern Water's environmental objectives.

With over 70MWe installed across the sewage and waste water treatment sectors , Edina remains the preferred biogas CHP supplier, installer and maintenance provider on most advanced digestion and anaerobic digestion projects commissioned in the UK.