The plant is periodically injecting biogas into the national gas grid daily during the final testing and commissioning phase and it is expected to become fully operational next month, when it will consistently inject gas into the grid.
When fully commissioned the gas to grid plant will produce up to 88 million kWh of renewable energy per year, and deliver £3 million in annual efficiencies to Northumbrian Water.
The new gas to grid project will run alongside the company’s advanced anaerobic digester, which was built three years ago, as Northumbrian Water began converting all of its sewage sludge into biogas and uses it to generate electricity.
Northumbrian Water wastewater director Richard Warneford said: “We are leading the industry in pushing the bounds of technology and learning from the challenges of integrating the new gas plant with our existing advanced sewage treatment and electricity generation process.”
Northumbrian Water will monitor the success of the gas to grid plant with a view to developing a similar plant alongside its advanced anaerobic digester at its Bran Sands wastewater treatment works on Teesside.