Aylesford Newsprint, the first mill to make 100% recycled newsprint, has successfully varied their permit to allow the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant to provide electricity to the National Grid to service the Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR) scheme and to allow for “Peak Shaving”.

Prior to the reconfiguration, Aylesford Newsprint’s CHP facility consisted of two CHP plants, which provided energy in the form of electricity and steam to their own site and surrounding businesses, including SCA’s (SCA Packaging UK Ltd.) New Hythe mill. SCA’s closure in 2009 resulted in a significant reduction to the energy demand from the CHP plant at Aylesford Newsprint. A review was therefore carried out by RPS in order to mitigate the impact of the closure on Aylesford Newsprint’s facility and to determine how to provide for their continuing operational needs.

The review identified that the most appropriate option would result in the retirement of one of the CHPs in providing electricity and steam to the site and instead to provide energy in the form of electricity to the National Grid. This required the retired CHP to operate in an open cycle, as opposed to the historic closed cycle operation. The reconfiguration necessitated prior approval from the Environment Agency and a permit variation.

The reconfiguration of the plant to run in open cycle, allowed the exhaust gases to be directed via a bypass stack rather than through the Heat Recovery Steam Generator to generate steam. Subsequently, there is no longer the injection of steam back into the turbine to reduce thermal oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Although NOx abatement has discontinued, the review by RPS concluded that the reduction from base load to a maximum of 400 hours per annum results in a negligible impact on overall emissions. In fact, there is a significant decrease in carbon dioxide as a result of decreased running hours, fuel consumption and steam dumping.

The Environmental Permit variation was managed and compiled from RPS’ Chepstow office with involvement from the RPS Environmental Scientist based permanently at Aylesford Newsprint and RPS’ Brighton office. The variation consisted of an in-depth options appraisal (H1 Environmental Risk Assessment) along with an air modelling report from the Brighton office.

At the time of submitting the permit variation, the Environment Agency permitting team were experiencing a large backlog of variations and as a consequence significant delays were being experienced with the majority of permit variations. RPS successfully managed the project so that the variation was approved before the bid window for STOR closed. ANL have now joined the STOR scheme and are providing the National Grid with electricity.

Contact:
Environmental Permitting:
Lucinda Hall
T: +44 (0) 1291 621821
E: lucinda.hall@rpsgroup.com

Emily Boram
T: +44 (0) 1622 796218
E: emily.boram@rpsgroup.com

Air Quality Assessor:
Fiona Prismall
T: +44 (0) 1273 546800
E: PrismallF@rpsgroup.com