To receive a presentation summarising the performance of the contract and facility for 2022/23 and its current status by the SWDWP contract team.

To receive a presentation from Mike Turner, MVV Managing Director summarising MVV’s business performance.

Ashleigh Sherrell (Contract Manager, SWDWP) provided an update and highlighted the following points for 2022/23:

a)    The Energy for Waste (EfW) facility had been fully operation for eight years;

b)    MVV’s overall 2022/23 service and performance was good, but there had been an increase in amount and range of performance deductions applied for failing to meet requirements, likely a result of improved monitoring regimes;

c)    There had been improved availability from the previous year by 3% with 93.8% availability, despite an increase in the number of unplanned outages;

d)    MVV had complied with planning and environmental permit conditions with five exceptions relating to exceedances of half hourly average in emissions;

e)    There had been four odour complaints, two of which had been attributed to site activities due to the roof vents being opens for safety reasons;

f)     MVV achieved 99.9% diversion from landfill, the target had been 97%;

g)    Carbon savings had exceeded expectations of 73,594 tCO²/year with 88,118 tCO²/year being achieved;

h)    The plant had had 93.8% availability (against a 91% target) with six unplanned shutdowns;

i)     There had been five exceedances of the environmental permit, all of which had been reported to the Environmental Agency, and appropriate action taken;

j)     There had been 54 performance failures relating to vehicle turn-around times, waste acceptance and ticket issuing, maintaining IT equipment, community area availability and others relating to the facility and its site boundaries;

k)    There had been an annual waste throughput of 261,020 (265,000 permitted);

l)     SWDWP was 4.5% below tonnage forecast and therefor the budget expenditure was 7.6% below forecast;

She added that for 2023/24:

m)  Due to plant efficiency across the years, MVV had requested SWDWP’s approval to increase capacity by 10ktp/a on permitted amount through consent variation applications, which was awaiting a decision from LPA, but the permit had been approved;

n)    An outage was conducted between 13 June and 4 July 2023 for extensive works such as grate re-surfacing and replacement of the IBA de-slaggers;

o)    There had been 12 Performance Failures for minor operational matters surrounding vehicle deliveries and waste acceptance;

p)    The SWDWP was 3.26% below forecasted tonnage at the time of the meeting for 2023/24;

q)    From April to September 2023, there had been two complaints, one enquiry, one meeting of the Incinerator Liaison Committee and two Consent Breaches.

In response to a question it was further explained:

r)    There had been a decline in the number of complaints received since opening, largely due to the work done to communicate with the local community and neighbours on planned outages etc

Mike Turner (Managing Director, MVV Environment Ltd) then added:

s)     Mostly minor defects had occurred, such as tube leaks, de-slagger issues and damage on the grate;

t)     Local IBA processing had resulted in an increasing of CO_2eq savings;

u)    An LED lighting upgrade had been undertaken;
 

v)    MVV remained committed to exploring district heating opportunities;

w)   There was an MVV development planned in Medworth, Wisbech that had a planned opening date in 2027 and would:

                      i.        Recover useful, sustainable energy from residual municipal waste;

                     ii.        Divert around half a million tonnes of non-recyclable waste per annum from landfill/export;

                    iii.        Generate over 50 MW of electricity and up to 30 MW of usable steam to supply local industrial customers, and send surplus electricity to the National Grid;

x)    Another project in Canford with a planned operational date of 2027/28 would:

                      i.        Recover useful, sustainable, energy from residual municipal waste;

                     ii.        Divert around 260,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste per annum from landfill/export;

                    iii.        Generate over 30 MW of electricity and usable steam for local industrial customers and send surplus electricity to the National Grid;

y)    An MVV project in Germany had a powerful, large-scale heat pump, integrated into a district heating network and was one of the largest in Europe and research from this project and others would hopefully influence the way many countries try to have net zero energy.

In response to a question, it was explained;

z)    Germany was leading in the green energy sector as they had relied on coal and gas from Russia, and whilst replication of their successes could be attempted  in other countries, like the UK, the culture around recycling, reuse, energy and waste was very different.