Metso has received orders from Tampereen Sähkölaitos Group to supply its automation technology to the Tarastenjärvi waste-to-energy plant and to the Hervanta woodchip-fired heating plant in Finland.

The technology, automation and services provider Metso will also supply an energy management system as part of the agreement.

Metso automation sales director Olli Koivumäki said with modern and reliable automation, the plants will be able to manage and run their processes with precision.

“Our excellent cooperation with Tampereen Sähkölaitos Group has continued over a long period of time and has covered several automation systems and rebuilds as well as related services for various power plants,” Koivumäki said.

“The new systems will work seamlessly with the systems delivered earlier. We are very glad that these companies have shown their trust in Metso by choosing us for all these new projects.”

Tammervoima’s Tarastenjärvi waste-to-energy plant is currently under construction and will produce electricity and district heat for Tampereen Sähkölaitos.

The plant will use around 150,000t of municipal waste as fuel annually. Output of the power plant will be 90GWh power and 300GWh heat. The commercial operation of the project will start in January 2016.

Metso will deliver its DNA automation and information management system, a safety automation system, a plant performance monitoring application, a calculation and reporting application for emissions monitoring, factory acceptance testing, installation, training and commissioning for the plant.

The deliveries will take place in 2015 and handover is scheduled for January 2016.

Metso has also been selected as the automation supplier for Tampereen Energiantuotanto’s new Hervanta woodchip-fired heating plant.

To be built in the Tampere suburb of Hervanta, the 49.5MW heating plant will be fueled with woodchips and peat.

The plant, which will be connected to the city’s district heating grid as a base load plant, will produce district heat mainly for the Hervanta area beginning May 2015.

The automation order was placed by Valmet, which is responsible for the turnkey delivery of the heating plant.

The heating plant will be controlled with Metso’s automation via a remote connection from the district heat control room at the Lielahti power plant.

Metso will supply a Metso DNA automation system to the heating plant as a turnkey delivery and will be responsible for everything from engineering to commissioning.

The delivery also includes an information management system with reporting tools and connections to Tampereen Energiantuotanto’s other systems.

Tampereen Energiantuotanto is part of Tampereen Sähkölaitos Group.

Tampereen Sähkölaitos, in turn, has placed an order with Metso for an energy management system that will be integrated with the company’s existing Metso DNA automation and information system.

Tammervoima is jointly owned by Tampereen Sähkölaitos Group, which is owned by the City of Tampere, and Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto.

The orders awarded to Metso are intended for two greenfield waste-to-energy plants in Battlefield, Shropshire, and in Leeds (UK), and two greenfield biomass-to-energy plants in Estrées-Mons (France) and in Ridham Dock (UK). The CNIM group acts as a contractor in all these projects.

Biomass CHP is included among eight renewable energy projects totalling 4.5 GW, which have had contracts signed under the UK government’s new low-carbon subsidy regime.

The projects also include coal-to-biomass conversion plants and dedicated biomass plants with combined heat and power within the UK.

The contracts were awarded under DECC’s final investment decision enabling for renewables (FID-ER) process that offered an early version of the Contracts for Difference support system that will replace the Renewables Obligation.

FID-ER was designed to help developers “take final or other critical investment decisions, directly impacting on the time to commissioning their project”

Biomass schemes include: Drax’s 645 MW conversion project in North Yorkshire; Lynemouth Power’s 420 MW conversion project in Northumberland; and MGT Power’s 299 MW dedicated biomass CHP project on Teesside.

Energy Minister Michael Fallon said the eight facilities will provide around 15TWh or 14 per cent of the renewable electricity expected to come forward by 2020.

They will reduce around 10 Mt CO2 from the UK power sector per annum compared to fossil fuel generation.

Aurivo, a multipurpose agricultural co-operative, has opened a biomass plant at its Dairy Ingredients site in Ballaghadareen, Ireland.

The facility will operate as a combined heat and power plant, with Aurivo expecting to begin selling on excess energy to the national grid by 2016. It will use 30,000 tonnes of woodchips annually, sources from Aurivo’s subsidiary company ECC Teoranta near Galway.

‘With the heavy burden of energy costs impacting business performance across Ireland, the facility opening greatly helps us on our path to sustained international growth,’ comments Aurivo CEO Aaron Forde.

The new €5.25 million facility will cut Aurivo Dairy Ingredients’ reliance on heavy fuel oil by over 70% and its carbon emissions by 50%.

‘Fuelled by Irish biomass, projects such as this will lessen our dependence on imported fossil fuels,’ Taoiseach Enda Kenny was quoted as saying. ‘Our agri-food industry needs to stay innovative if we are to keep Irish exports strong.’

Agri-business Aurivo has opened a new $7.1m (€5.25m) biomass facility at its dairy ingredients plant in Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon, in the west of Ireland.

The biomass facility is set to cut its fuel oil consumption by over 70 per cent and its carbon emissions by 50 per cent.

Operational from this month, ultimately, the facility will be developed into a major combined heat and power plant, and by 2016, Aurivo plans to sell energy onwards into the national electricity grid.

The plant will use 30,000 tonnes of woodchip each year, sourced from Aurivo’s subsidiary company ECC Teoranta in Corr na Mona, Co Galway.

Employing over 700 people in the west of Ireland, Aurivo processes over 250 million litres of milk annually, 92pc of which is exported to 46 countries.

Chief executive Aaron Forde said, “With the heavy burden of energy costs impacting business performance across Ireland, the facility opening today greatly helps Aurivo on its path to sustained international growth.”