“Following the closure, we can no longer use all of this steam, which consequently is cooled and vented to the atmosphere. The new condensing turbine power plant will use this excess steam and generate electrical power,” says mill manager David Ingham to explain the improvements.
The new plant will generate approximately 4.8 MW of renewable energy from waste steam. Thanks to the condensing turbine, the share of biomass energy production will increase to 70 %. The current share of biomass energy production from a total electrical power demand is 56 %. The new plant will be producing power by early 2017 at the latest.
“The new power plant will significantly reduce the cost of energy consumed in the recycled paper mill. This will underpin UPM Shotton’s status as a low cost manufacturer that is able to sustain its competitiveness going forwards.”
“Our cost base has reduced significantly and below the target levels we set before the closure process began,” emphasises Ingham.
Sustaining high quality services
The development of renewable and recycling technologies and practices represents one of the corner stones for the future competitive advantage of the Shotton mill.
The mill is an example of UPM’s globally leading approach to sustainability, continuously reducing the carbon footprint of the company’s operations and improving energy efficiency. The condensing turbine will reduce the mill’s carbon footprint by approximately 27%.
“In addition to the new condensing turbine, we are executing a plan for further energy efficiency improvements within our existing paper mill operations. We have kept the most energy efficient assets in operation but have also developed the availability of our power plant boiler and improved the quality of the waste biomass that feeds the boiler,” says Ingham.
Ingham welcomes the improvements, confirming that the Shotton mill has managed to sustain its high-quality standard for customer service.
“In addition, we have sustained our world-class safety performance of zero lost time accidents and achieved the highest employee attendance rates in UPM Paper ENA. The Shotton workforce deserves a lot of credit for this,” he concludes.
Vesa Puoskari
