Aberdeen incinerator due to fire up next month

By Kieran Beattie

January 27 2023, 11:45 am

When it's fully operational, the Aberdeen incinerator will take non-recyclable waste from Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray. But right now, this waste is being landfilled. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson 04/01/2023.

The Aberdeen incinerator is due to fire up for the very first time next month and start burning waste.

Construction work on the £150 million Ness Energy Project incinerator in East Tullos has been ongoing for many months, but has been plagued by numerous delays.

Once it’s fully up and running, it is planned to burn 150,000 tonnes of non-recyclable material per year from the three council areas of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray.

Work is progressing on the Aberdeen Incinerator at East Tullos Industrial Estate, but it won’t be fully operational for some time yet. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson 04/01/23.

EFW Ness Limited, a subsidiary of Acciona Industrial UK, is the contractor for the new incinerator.

Due to a contractual agreement, for the past few months the contractor has been continuing to send waste from the three councils to landfill because the incinerator has not been ready to process it.

However, a new Aberdeen City Council report says the contractor is due to start firing up the incinerator next month.

Aberdeen incinerator due to start burning rubbish next month, but concerns remain for further delays

Workers are putting the finishing touches on the facility currently. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson 04/01/2023.

An update report for councillors says that the contractor’s “current expectation is the hot commissioning will commence in February”.

Hot commissioning is the process of actually firing up the incinerator to burn waste.

EFW Ness Limited had a “contingency delivery plan” to handle the non-recyclable rubbish from Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray if its East Tullos site was not ready to take in waste by October 29 last year.

As it missed this deadline, all the rubbish from all three councils which can’t be recycled has been sent to landfill instead ever since.

Stoneyhill Landfill site near Peterhead, which is where landfill waste from homes in Aberdeenshire goes currently. Image: DC Thomson.

But if all goes to plan, this rubbish will start being diverted from landfill and to the Aberdeen incinerator instead.

The council, however, has warned of further delays for the overall completion of the project beyond the hot commissioning stage.

Their report said that works are “progressing, and completion date is still expected to be summer 2023”, but noted that “the delivery of the project to date has been hampered by several issues, both internally and externally”.

A view of the under-construction incinerator from October 2022. A lot of construction work has been carried out since then. Image: Kenny Elrick.

These issues include Covid, recruitment of suitable-trained staff, and impacts on the supply chain, according to the contractor.

“There is still a significant risk that external impacts may continue to affect the anticipated delivery timeline and budget,” the council report said.

Once hot commissioning starts, Aberdeen City Council’s staff say they are maintaining a “close liaison” with the incinerator contractor “to ensure a smooth transition for depositing residual waste to the new facility”.