Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S (BWSC), a 100% subsidiary of MES, in consortium with the Danish boiler supplier Burmeister & Wain Energy A/S (BWE) received an order for a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant on full turnkey base in Cramlington, Northern England. The order includes operation and maintenance for a 12-year period.

The CHP plant, with an output of 27.8 MW, is expected to be up and running by the end of 2017. The finished facility will generate 223 GWh of renewable electricity annually – enough to power 52,000 homes - and will be supplying power and heating to 2 pharmaceutical companies on a direct wire and pipeline and export the remaining power to the national grid.

The plant is based on the reheat technology, which is known from large power plants but is relatively new to power plants of this size. The steam is led through two heating processes and two turbines instead of usually one for an increased utilisation of energy. This improves fuel efficiency and provides a higher plant output which is both an economic and environmental advantage. The Cramlington CPH plant will be the first reheat biomass plant in the UK and is expected to reduce CO2 savings by 56,000 tonnes annually compared to a gas-fired power plant.

BWSC is a Danish engineering and contracting company which develops, builds, operates and owns high-performance biomass, biogas and diesel power plants. The majority of the projects are supplied as turnkey plants, and BWSC has delivered more than 175 power plants to 53 countries worldwide with a total capacity of more than 3,500 MW.