Hyder has an established track record forproviding innovative solutions to clients
and, working in close partnership with the
Management Team at Tower Colliery, an
opportunity for substantial cost savings
was identified
The process of mining releases methane gas,
and when this mixes with the air it becomes
potentially explosive and is usually extracted to
the surface directly from the coal face and
vented into the atmosphere. As the gas is
combustible, it has the potential to be used in
the generation of electricity - Tower Colliery
realised this and in conjunction with Hyder, have
developed options for on-site power generation.
Hyder was able to transfer existing expertise
from its landfill gas generation business and
modify it to suit the Colliery. Tower therefore
decided to fully outsource the 3 million
project to Hyder through a design, build, finance
and operate contract which will run for 8 years.
This has entailed the development of a bespoke
gas treatment plant for the Colliery which is
capable of processing 1550 litres of mine gas
per second and can remove dust and water
prior to the gas being passed through to the
generators.
Five containerised spark ignition engines operate at a rate of 1300kW each producing a total output of 6.5MW. Electricity generated is transformed to 11,000 volts to match the existing Colliery electricity infrastructure and enables the Colliery to be self sufficient in electricity. Whilst the plant is designed to operate at full output for over 90% of the year, the scheme is configured in such a way that electricity can still be imported - or exported - as required.
