Member Article

Biomass boost for expanding px

Teesside based energy and process industry operations and engineering specialist, the px group, has secured its second major contract of 2016.

Over the next three and a half years, it will supply owner’s engineering (OE) and project management services to MGT Teesside Limited as the world’s largest, new build, biomass combined heat and power (CHP) station is constructed and commissioned.

The £650 million Tees Renewable Energy Plant (Tees REP) will generate up to 299MWe of electricity – enough to supply 600,000 homes – and will be one of the most important thermal power plant construction projects for decades.

Occupying land at the Teesport Estate, near Middlesbrough, it will utilise modern circulating fluidised bed technology to generate power, whilst boasting a far smaller carbon footprint than traditional fossil fuel based energy generation facilities1.

Site preparation will begin within weeks, with construction underway by the end of the year, creating at least 600 jobs. Commercial operations are due to start in 2020 - providing about 100 full time posts on site and several hundred more in the supply chain.

The Tees REP will be fuelled by wood pellets and chips from certified sustainable forestry sources in the United States and Europe, with regular audits to ensure compliance with strict sustainability criteria2.

In March, the Stockton on Tees based px group secured a contract to process a significant proportion of the UK’s gas at the St. Fergus Terminal, near Aberdeen. The deal, with North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP) coincided with an extension of the contract to operate the Teesside Gas Processing Plant – also an NSMP facility.

The px group now operates and maintains energy and process industry facilities throughout the UK, as well as providing engineering consultancy services worldwide.

Chief Executive Officer, Ian Clifford, said: “We are delighted to have been selected to support MGT on this prestigious biomass project. The fact that the plant is on our doorstep, that it increases our involvement in the renewable energy sector and endorses our engineering and project management expertise, makes it particularly satisfying.”

The px group is a fully integrated energy infrastructure solutions business, which also provides energy management and engineering consultancy services. It has 14 years - and its senior people over 20 years - experience of operating high hazard facilities and currently employs almost 400 people.

Supporting px on the Tees REP will be international consulting and engineering specialists Pöyry Energy, together with infrastructure and built environment consultants, the RPS Group.

Phil Hodges, Managing Director, Pöyry Energy, said: “Pöyry Energy is looking forward to supporting the px group during the Tees REP project where we will be responsible for technical OE services, drawing on our global experience of successfully delivering major infrastructure projects and our innate understanding of biomass power plant technology/engineering.”

Alan Skipper, Technical Director with RPS, added: “RPS has a significant track record in the civil engineering and building design of biomass and other energy projects and is proud to be supporting the px group via the provision OE technical services covering these elements of the project”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .