Plant Stabilization Works Starting At Tynes Bay

February 18, 2022

Both units at Tynes Bay have “now returned to service” and the ”facility is now at the stage of beginning the plant stabilization works mentioned last year,” Acting Minister of Public Works Wayne Furbert said in the House of Assembly on Friday [Feb 18].

The Minister said, “You will recall back in December of 2021, the island was facing a crisis with waste disposal. The full shutdown of the Tynes Bay facility due to boiler failures and the untimely failure of the baling contingency system – meant the island unfortunately had to resort to landfilling for a period of seven days.

“I am pleased to report that due to the efforts of the plant personnel and specialist contractors from overseas…..that those failures have now been rectified with both units now returned to service and the contingency system repaired, thereby allowing the landfilling to be drawn to a close.

“Tynes Bay facility is now at the stage of beginning the plant stabilization works mentioned last year. This work will provide extended life to the boilers, which are the most vulnerable part of the facility. This work has already commenced with personnel from Europe already arriving on island. This first phase of work, which focuses on boiler unit No. 2 is set to be completed in three months’ time. The second phase involving unit No. 1 will commence around this same time next year – and take a similar amount of time to complete.

“While this stabilization work takes place, we are concurrently making progress with the full refurbishment of the plant, which will take some 3 to 4 years to engineer, tender, procure and execute. ”

The Acting Minister’s full statement follows below:

Mr. Speaker, I rise to provide the House with an update on the Tynes Bay Waste to Energy facility.

Mr. Speaker, you will recall back in December of 2021, the island was facing a crisis with waste disposal. The full shutdown of the Tynes Bay facility due to boiler failures and the untimely failure of the baling contingency system – meant the island unfortunately had to resort to landfilling for a period of seven [7] days.

But today I am pleased to report that due to the efforts of the plant personnel and specialist contractors from overseas…..that those failures have now been rectified with both units now returned to service and the contingency system repaired, thereby allowing the landfilling to be drawn to a close.

Since November 29, 2021, waste was instead baled and temporarily stored at the Tynes Bay contingency yard while the boiler repairs took place. This produced e some 611 bales.

Mr. Speaker, in the weeks that followed, the boilers were brought back online and bales from the contingency system were returned to the plant for processing. Additionally, about half the material that was landfilled was also returned, equating to some 1,667.8 tons.

Mr. Speaker, the Tynes Bay facility is now at the stage of beginning the plant stabilization works mentioned last year. This work will provide extended life to the boilers, which are the most vulnerable part of the facility. This work has already commenced with personnel from Europe already arriving on island. This first phase of work, which focuses on boiler unit No. 2 is set to be completed in three months’ time. The second phase involving unit No. 1 will commence around this same time next year – and take a similar amount of time to complete.

Mr. Speaker, while this stabilization work takes place, we are concurrently making progress with the full refurbishment of the plant, which will take some 3 to 4 years to engineer, tender, procure and execute. To that end we have secured the services of a project engineer to lead the project with hopes of making significant progress through the next financial year.

I want to again thank the Tynes Bay team for their efforts and indeed the public for their patience and understanding while we make these necessary upgrades. As always, I will continue to give updates on the status of the Tynes Bay Facility as the works unfold.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker!

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