Hartlepool landfill site gets the power treatment

Utility Engineering Solutions Ltd completed a turnkey contestable electrical connections project for a new landfill gas plant in Hartlepool.

Changes to the ROCs mechanism meant timely execution of the contestable works was essential.

The Need

Longhill 1MWe landfill gas plant was developed by Ener-g, specialists in landfill gas and anaerobic digestion.

The biogas facility, located in Hartlepool, is designed to manage the effects of gas methane at the site whilst generating power onto the grid. This has the benefits of minimising the levels of odour at the landfill whilst providing green power thus benefiting the local community.

Due to the export requirements, the supply was to be metered at 11kV, with a separate substation required to house the private transformer and to supply power to the Northern Powergrid (NPg) substation for battery and tripping supplies.

Project Details

The UES turnkey solution included the establishment of a new HV metering substation to be adopted by NPg, comprising of high voltage switchgear and 11kV metering, complete with Code of Practice 3 HV metering panel and emergency trip.

The contestable network design included the supply and installation of a multi-function protection relay, complete with G59 functionality, a protection panel to house the relays and a wall mounted battery unit, as well as installation of power and lighting within the NPg substation.

All equipment was designed, specified, procured and installed by UES as a turnkey contestable project.

The 11kV point of connection was located within 70m of the landfill site. The landfill site was connected by a radial 11kV circuit.

Electrical engineering design and installation of an NPg approved RMU & protection panel.

Challenges

The programme to design, supply and install substation equipment was taken on by the team at UES, knowing a challenging programme lay ahead.

UES took on the challenge by capitalising on significant knowledge of NPg design, plant and protection requirements.

Orders for major plant items were placed as soon as the design was approved by NPg.

Highway notices were issued and cable installation works were underway in parallel with the substation fit-out and commissioning.

The Benefits

According to Jim Caldwell, Project Engineer and Head of Projects at Ener-g:

“The contract was executed to budget and to programme. UES provided a very professional and efficient service. Any technical queries/issues were attended to promptly and resolved quickly. We will definitely be using UES again on our future projects.”