AMEC/ALSTOM Consortium Wins Environmental Technology Contract

A consortium comprising AMEC and ALSTOM has been awarded a £108 million contract (AMEC share £64 million) by RWE npower to fit new environmental technology to reduce sulphur emissions at the Aberthaw coal-fired power station near Barry in South Wales.

The project is driven by the requirements of new European environmental regulations due to come into force in 2008. It involves fitting air pollution control technology that will improve Aberthaw's environmental performance, safeguard the station's future and provide a boost to the local economy.

AMEC will be responsible for overall project management of on-site engineering and construction, detailed civil and structural design together with engineering design of the off-site utilities plant. ALSTOM is the process technology provider of the air pollution control equipment, which features a seawater flue gas desulphurisation (SWFGD) system for the power station's three 500-megawatt generators. Aberthaw produces around a third of South Wales' electricity.

Design is underway, with civil engineering work at the power station scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2006. The project will be completed in the first quarter of 2008.

"This is an important opportunity for AMEC and forms part of our overall strategy of providing specialist services across the energy spectrum from oil and gas through nuclear to renewables," said Steve Lee, managing director of AMEC's industrial business. "It is one of a number of potential similar environmental projects for AMEC's industrial business across the UK driven by the pressures from new European legislation to reduce CO2 emissions by 2008".

Flue gas desulphurisation plants remove approximately 95 per cent of the sulphur dioxide produced when generating electricity from coal.

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Posted 14/11/05

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