Major maintenance work is to be carried out at Lerwick Energy Recovery Plant.

Shetland Island Council agreed terms with Babcock & Wilcox Volund A/S to supply and install essential upgrades to the plant, which will lead to improved efficiency and capacity, as well as reducing carbon emissions.

The contract value is around £2,886,000 and the project, which will focus on water cooling systems, will run until the end of October 2021.

A new water-fed heat exchanger will be installed within the furnace, to replace the existing concrete and brick refractory walls. This will increase efficiency, thermal output and reliability, meaning there should be less frequent and lengthy shutdowns.

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Along with these upgrades, other work will also be done to replace some areas of the ERP which are now over 20 years old and which have reached the end of their working lives, such as replacement of the waste feed hopper system.

John Smith, Director of Infrastructure Services: "This project will give a new lease of life to our ERP, future-proofing an ageing piece of infrastructure. It was ‘cutting edge’ when it was installed in 1999, and this project will bring it back to the forefront of energy from waste technology. It will mean improved efficiency and output, greater flexibility and capacity, and Lerwick’s district heating scheme will be less reliant on oil boilers during peak demand times, which will reduce carbon emissions."