Valmet will supply an automation system to the new Slough Multifuel energy-from-waste plant close to London

Finnish company Valmet, who develops and supplies technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries, is to supply automation to the new Slough multifuel energy-from-waste plant near London. The order was placed by Hitachi Zosen Inova AG (HZI), the engineering procurement and construction contractor for the facility. This is the seventeeth time that HZI has chosen Valmet’s automation technology for its energy-from-waste plant projects.

The plant is owned by a joint venture between a UK energy company SSE Thermal, and Copenhagen Infrastructure III K/S — a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Deliveries will take place from early September 2022 to January 2023, and the automation system will be taken over by the end customer in late November 2024.

After starting full operation in 2024, the Slough multifuel plant will process around 480,000 tonnes of residual waste from the Greater London area per year and will cover the annual power consumption equivalent to about 100,000 households.

Valmet’s delivery consists of a Valmet DNA automation system, a protection system, integrated controls for 11kV distribution, large screens, an extensive operator interface for the control room, an electrical control system, 3,200 hardwired signals, and more than 7,300 links and data points. Valmet achieved ‘a major milestone’ this year when the flow control company Neles was merged into Valmet. The combined companies’ net sales in 2021 was about 4.5 billion euros based on the respective company figures.