News
The General Manager, Neville Martin and the Waste Services Team Leader, William Spence, wrote a paper about the District Heating Scheme for the institute of Civil Engineers. You can read the paper here.
February 2012
Planning permission has been granted to SSE for 3 wind turbines, each rated at 2.3MW, to be located at Rova Head. We hope to have these operational during 2013. They will feed into the power station and have a spur to the Peak Load Boiler Station where there will be an electric boiler, up to 4MW capacity, that will heat water and feed into a 135MWh thermal storage tank. This heat will then be used to supplement that from the Energy Recovery Plant to meet peak loads, removing the need to use oil. At current winter demand a full tank will run for a few days, presuming there is no wind. Higher demand tends to be during periods of high wind chill.
The electric boiler will form part of the NINES project, and will help to stabilise the electrcity grid, enabling other renewables to join.
It is anticipated that connections will recommence during 2013. It is envisaged that the project will allow up to 300 houses and 20 businesses to be connected. As we can normally connect around 100 properties per year, it will take four years to complete connections.
The Board wil have to decide a priority sytem as we already have over 200 applications waiting.
June 2011
The connection to the new Mareel arts and cinema complex was made live.
There are now 1100 connections in for district heating. The SHEAP Board has decided that the scheme is at capacity and no more new connections will be agreed until a new heat source develops. The only exceptions will be for customers who need mainly a summer load, and for schemes which lead to a saving of energy peak demand.
May 2011
The last phase of the Quoys housing development by Hjaltland Housing Association is officially opened. Only the new Baptist Kirk has to be completed in the development, although the line to the kirk is already live.
The Institution of Civil Engineers has awarded the James Watt medal to William Spence (Plant Manager of the Energy Recovery Plant) and Neville Martin (Manager of Shetland Heat Energy and Power) for a paper they wrote about the scheme. The awards ceremony will be held in London on 24 October 2011. The paper will be presented in London during 2012.
The first new large pump was installed. This will be able to cope with the future peak demand by iteself. It replaced the two original pumps which were struggling to meet demand during the winter of 2010/11. It is planned to install another back-up pump in September.
April 2011
The connection to the Co-operative Supermarket was made live. Other new customers include Islesburgh House Youth Hostel and the new Shetland Islands Council complex at North Ness.
March 2011
Digital Applications International Ltd, based in Aberdeen, completed the installation of the new control systems for the Energy Recovery Plant and the Peak Load Boiler Station. This replaced the original system that was installed in 1998 which had reached its capacity.
24 June 2009
New coolers have arrived at Waste to Energy Plant. Coolers are still required to dispose of excess heat during the summer, as the ERP produces a constant output. These coolers replace the original coolers that were installed in 1998, which had developed leaks. The new coolers have louvres which should reduce the heat loss during the winter.
