Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH FEBRUARY 2020 | 15 Finance & Investment The Green Investment Group (GIG) and Covanta have given the green light to a 42MW energy-from-waste plant near Shepshed in Leicestershire. Every year, the Newhurst facility will process up to 350,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish supplied primarily by waste management firm Biffa, which owns a 50 per cent stake in the project. The remaining ENERGY GIG gives green light to energy-from-waste plant in Leicestershire half is split between GIG and Covanta. Construction is expected to take three and a quarter years and will be led by Hitachi Zosen Inova – a Swiss subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi. Covanta will operate the plant. Edward Northam, head of GIG's European division, said: "To increase resource efficiency, we need the right infrastructure. Together, GIG and Covanta are developing a pipeline of projects that will form the backbone of the UK's next-generation waste management system. "Our ongoing partnership with Covanta is helping the UK reduce reliance on landfill for non-recyclable waste, creating a cleaner, greener environment for all. The Newhurst facility is an exciting new addition to that Centrica blames poor results on price cap Despite posting a loss of almost £1 billion, Centrica still aims to be cheapest supplier by 2022 Price caps, nuclear outages and falling natural gas prices have hit British Gas owner Centrica's finances. Nonetheless, the company is aiming to become the cheapest energy supplier by 2022. Out going chief executive Iain Conn described the sector as a "challenging environment" when the company unveiled its preliminary financial results for the year ended 31 December 2019. Centrica has continued to blame the price cap for the heavy loss in its financial results for 2019, which were posted earlier this month. The group is vying to become the cheapest energy supplier on the market by 2022 as numerous challenger energy brands continue to erode the dominance of the more-established players. Centrica posted a loss of almost £1 billion; out going chief executive Iain Conn said operating profit and earnings were "materially impacted by a challenging environment". He said: "Against this backdrop, Centrica delivered growth in customer accounts, higher net promoter scores, significant cost efficiencies in excess of our tar- get, and full-year adjusted operating cash flow and net debt within its target ranges. "As expected, performance during the second half was much improved compared with the first half, dem- onstrating momentum as we enter 2020. "Looking to 2020, we expect to deliver earnings momentum relative to 2019 from our core customer divisions, but upstream earnings are likely to be impacted by the lower commodity price environment," he added. AJ WATER Biggest filtration system comes online The largest water filtration sys- tem in Europe has come online at Anglian's water treatment works in Norwich. The new system will allow water contain- ing high levels of sediment to be processed at the facility, which can treat up to 57 million litres a day. The project began in 2017 and accounts for £36 million of the £500 million the company plans to invest in the region between 2015 and 2020. Alterations to its abstrac- tion licence meant Anglian had to diversify its water source to protect the River Wensum, which has been designated as a site of special scientific interest and a special area of conservation. Paul Naylor, regional sup- ply manager for Anglian, said: "We're planning decades into the future with this investment. This technology is vital to keep pace with the growing city's needs. Norfolk is expected to be home to more than one million people by 2034 and many of those people will be coming to live and work in Norwich. "This, combined with being in one of the driest counties in the UK, means that significant investment is needed to ensure we keep taps running and continue to power the economy. As importantly, this scheme will make sure the environment does not suffer because of future growth and is ready to cope with any increased demand on local water resources." ENERGY Funding for first UK geothermal plant Thrive Renewables has agreed to invest up to £6.5 million in the UK's first geothermal power station in Cornwall. The plant, located on the United Downs industrial estate in Redruth, is expected to gener- ate around 3MW of electricity and 12MW of heat. Two boreholes have been drilled by developer Geothermal Engineering – one to a depth of 5.1km, making it the deep- est onshore well in the UK. The wells will extract heat from a geological structure called the Porthtowan Fault at tempera- tures expected to exceed 190°C. The funding from Thrive Renewables will be used to com- plete testing on the wells, which have already been shown to be suitable for electricity genera- tion, and then to build the plant. Managing director Matthew Clayton said: "We are thrilled to provide the finance needed for the UK's first geothermal electric power plant to become a com- mercial reality. "It's the first time we have been able to generate renewable electricity using natural heat from the earth in the UK. "This project taps a constant natural resource, providing baseload renewable electricity, a crucial component of the UK's clean energy generation mix." Conn: Centrica performance improved in Q2 partnership and our first project investing alongside Biffa." The Newhurst facility is the third to reach financial close of four energy-from-waste projects being jointly developed by GIG and Covanta under a partner- ship formed in 2017. They include the 60MW Rookery South facility in Bedfordshire, which was given the go-ahead in March last year. This week

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