Consortium appointed as EPC contractor for Mpumalanga biomass project

A consortium comprising enginee ingconsultant ELBEngineeringServices, environmentequipment manufacturer KC Cottrell and the ELB Educational Trust, has been appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for Ngodwana Energy’s 25 MW biomass project, in Mpumalanga.

Ngodwana Energy was, in April 2015, selected as a preferred bidder in round four of government’s Renewable EnergyIndependent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). It is one of 27 REIPPPP projects for which power purchase agreements were signed on Wednesday, after a long delay in the signing of such agreements by power utility Eskom.

The project will take 27 months to build and commission. The consortium will erect a 25 MW biomass power plant alongside the Sappi Ngodwana mill. The plant will use waste material from the surrounding plantations to generate power.

The power plant burns the biomass in a boiler to generate steam and drive a turbine to generate electricity, while a high-efficiency air pollution control system will be used on the boiler flue gas to ensure the emissions are well below the new South African requirements.

“The consortium is honoured to have been appointed as the EPC contractor to supply the power plant for this project, which we believe will become a reference biomass plant for Africa. With our international technology partners, we will supply a power plant aligned with the specific requirements of Ngodwana Energy for the South African environment,” ELB CEO Stephen Meijers said in a statement on Thursday.