By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Scaffolding needed to maintain Nottingham City Council’s 50-year-old heat station so the supply of heating and hot water to city residents is not interrupted will cost up to £700,000.
The heat station, in London Road, was originally built in 1953 by the Boots company for use as an industrial power station.
Today it works by receiving high-pressure steam created by the burning of waste at the nearby Eastcroft Incinerator.
A turbine then helps provide heating and hot water to around 5,000 homes and 100 businesses across Nottingham, including the Victoria Centre, Theatre Royal and Motorpoint Arena.
However, a council report has said “continual maintenance and servicing is required” to keep it running due to the station’s age.
The Labour-run council therefore needs to spend £700,000 over five years to put up scaffolding to allow maintenance to be done.
“Due to the age of the plant, there is a requirement for scaffolding to be erected on a day-to-day basis to ensure the safe maintenance of high-level assets at the plant,” a delegated decision document says.
“Due to the nature of the plant, there is high-pressure steam, [and] high-voltage electricity areas to be worked on. This requires specialist scaffolding contractors with the relevant certification and skills to deliver this work.
“There is now a requirement to procure this specialist contractor which is critical to the current maintenance regime to ensure there is not a major failure occur on the plant or system.
“Permanent resource availability enables immediate response to emergency repairs so that downtime is minimised and heat and power supply can be restored in the shortest possible timeframe.
“Failure to have this service in place will lead to delays in getting the turbine running after downtime, delays in getting the heat supply back to customers properties and could lead to the network having to be shut down.
“If the network is shut down, this will mean a loss of income to Nottingham City Council Enviroenergy.”
Enviroenergy had been run as a separate company, however, it has since been brought back in-house by the council.
The heat station and the associated 80km of piping now need investment which is expected to cost around £17.5m.
The station originally housed three boilers which were fed by coal delivered from the former Gedling Colliery.
Power was generated by two turbo-generators, and these are still in use today as backup generators to provide additional power during peak demand.
The plant was in use until the early 1970s when the site was purchased by the Nottingham Corporation and leased to British Coal.
The incineration of household waste was later chosen as a way to dispose of refuse, resulting in the building of the Eastcroft incinerator.
The linking of the energy-from-waste incinerator with the district heating network was the biggest of its kind in the UK at the time, costing £5 million, and the Nottingham Corporation set up the network as a joint venture with the National Coal Board.
It would go on to operate under Enviroenergy.
