B & W vølund

Waste-to-energy plant, power production

Ireland’s first waste-to-energy plant is in operation

For the first time in Ireland's history, 20,000 households in Meath County is provided with waste-powered electricity. Located some 40 kilometers north of Dublin, Ireland’s first waste-to-energy plant began delivering electricity to the city’s grid in November 2011.

Meath County's waste-to-energy plant is located some 40 kilometers north of Dublin.

How was the project carried out? Read the interview with Henrik Pagh, our project manager:

On-time delivery

Following a trial operation period, we handed over the system to Indaver on 24 November, 2011. Henrik Pagh, our project manager, completed the project after two and a half years of work. He is thankful that the project has run smoothly. The schedule was kept to despite the fact that the company, at short notice, assumed a much larger delivery than originally agreed upon with another full-line supplier who ultimately opted out of the project. Indaver then assumed responsibility for the full delivery. In light of the problems along the way, Henrik is also pleased that the total system was only delayed by three months from the original contract delivery date.

Safety as a success criterion

In addition, the partnership worked well, and safety was a top priority throughout. The latter observation is a key detail for foreign suppliers who wish to operate on the Irish market, where safety procedures are not taken lightly.
"We've won the Safety Award for Contractor of the Month several times. This is extremely important in Ireland, where safety procedures are very thorough and given high priority. Every step in each job, along with the risks involved, must be described ahead of time in a master installation plan. In the beginning, getting all procedures and the paper flow for all of health and safety underway was an incredibly heavy administrative workload. But it eventually ran quite well, with regular meetings and effective partnerships between people on site," Henrik Pagh said.

Training first

We had up to 90 employees on site, most of whom came from Finnish and Polish subcontractors working with the company. Henrik Pagh explains that the basis for the safety work was established before the employees' arrival in Ireland. In other words, we travelled to the subcontractors' countries to train them in the safety procedures. Similarly, PM Group, Indaver's top health and safety consultants, went to Denmark to train us at B&W Vølund.

Reference project

The project was completed without any industrial accidents, and Indaver has communicated its satisfaction with the partnership, and said they will use the Meath plant as a future reference project.

"Indaver said that they would like to tell others about their partnership with us, which is obviously very important to us, because as a foreign supplier potential clients take an extra long, hard look at our qualifications. Not least on the Irish market, where safety is given top priority, and where there is no prior experience with waste-to-energy plants," Henrik says.
Our scope

We provided the boiler, the combustion grate, the combustion control, as well as the SNCR system (that is, a selective, non-catalytic reduction system for NO_x reduction).

The combustion system is based on our newest and most efficient grate technology: DynaGrate^®. The Belgian company Indaver owns the plant and served as the turnkey supplier in the project and operator of the plant.

The project approach

The Meath plant was delivered on schedule as a result of our project methodology and the excellent partnership with our customer Indaver. Our proven project execution is a result of strong project management skills and close project team cooperation with our client and subcontractors. Our project managers are certified with the International Project Management Association (IPMA).
In order to make optimal decisions concerning technical solutions we focus on proper communication skills and project management tools. Our project teams are close units of experienced people who cover all aspects of the project with their combined knowledge and skills.

Health and safety: We won several awards during the project

In Ireland, safety is a top priority. We won the Safety Award for Contractor of the Month several times during the project, and the project was successfully completed without any accidents. One of the reasons is that we implemented the concept of Human Performance Improvement (HPI) which is a “tool” for prevention of major incidents that could result in unnecessary costs including accidents and errors.

We will maintain high standards with continuous training and management involvement to reinforce our primary commitment “Safety First”.

We won the Safety Award for Contractor of the Month several times during the project.

For further information

Ann Raveel, CTO, Indaver, (+32) 1528 8035, (+32) 479 48 02 23
Toon Verschroeven, Project Engineer, Indaver, (+32) 3 568 48 18, (+32) 473 93 91 77
Henrik Pagh, Project Manager, B&W Vølund, (+45) 7614 3678

Experience a guided virtual plant tour of the Meath County energy plant

Visit the guided virtual plant tour

*All values refer to 11% O₂ dry gas
** Daily
*** Half-hour

The values are before flue gas cleaning.
The plant limit values complies with the EU directive on waste incineration. Naturally the plant is equipped with a modern flue gas cleaning system.

Related information

Virtual plant tour of the Meath waste-to-energy plant

Indaver invests €130 million in state-of-the-art technology for the first municipal waste-to-energy facility in Ireland