OREANDA-NEWS. The Ferrybridge Multifuel 1 (FM1) project which is under construction at Ferrybridge has cleared another major milestone in the commissioning process, with the plant exporting electricity to the grid for the first time.

To produce low carbon electricity the plant burns a range of fuel sources that would have ended up in landfill, including waste-derived fuels from various sources of municipal solid waste and commercial and industrial waste. Once full commercial operations begin later in 2015, the plant will consistently produce enough electricity to power around 160,000 homes*. 

Tom Maillet, Director of Engineering and Operations for MEL, said: ‘The plant is now nearing the end of the construction and commissioning phase and exporting electricity to the grid is a key milestone for the project. We expect the plant to be fully commercially operational within the coming months.” 

Franz-Josef Mengede, CEO of Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), the main contractor for the FM1 plant, said: “We are proud to deliver a plant that sets a new standard in fuel flexibility, size and energy efficiency to our customer.” 

Ferrybridge Multifuel is a 50:50 joint venture between SSE plc and Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.

*Based on the industry average annual household consumption of 3,300 KWh of electricity and using a base load of circa 70MW net export capacity utilised for 8000 hours per annum.