‘Eco-friendly’ power plant will soon be online says Hargreaves

HARGREAVES Services has commissioned the first of five engines at Rocpower’s first eight MW electricity generation plant in Wakefield.

The group, which bought the remaining 50% interest in Yorkshire-based Coal4Energy earlier this year, said today that the bulk of construction work had now been completed and that the site had passed its grid compatibility test.

The next two engines are expected to commence commissioning before the end of the month with the final sets due to be commissioned in the New Year.

The group has sourced options over a further five sites in Yorkshire and Lancashire, which will be developed along similar lines.

Each plant can produce enough energy to heat 15,000 homes and reduces Hargreaves’ carbon footprint, saving 41,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking 90 trucks off the road.

The Rocpower operation utilises many parts of Hargreaves’ existing integrated supply chain.

Each plant comprises a number of heavy fuel oil engines that have been adapted to run on a broad spectrum of sustainable renewable fuels.

The fuel is sourced in large shipments by the group’s joint venture, Rocfuel.

It is then imported and managed by the Hargreaves team at the port of Immingham and will be distributed to the sites using the group’s tanker fleet.

The first plant has been built to develop the control infrastructure necessary to support additional sites.

The capital cost of the first plant is in the region of £3.5m. Subsequent incremental plants are anticipated to cost approximately £2.8m each.

Gordon Banham, chief executive of Hargreaves Services, said: “Rocpower demonstrates the agility and creativity at Hargreaves.

“This is an important project for us and sits very logically and synergistically alongside our existing solid fuel sourcing, processing and distribution operations.”

In a trading update also announced today Hargreaves reported that results were in line with management expectations and that its UK coal operations continued to perform “very strongly”.

Its coke division Monckton is also set to perform well following a recovery in the coke markets.

However, inconsistent production performance at its Maltby mine near Rotherham has adversely affected the first half.

Earlier this month, the firm confirmed the tragic death of one of its workers at the colliery.

It said that despite the fatality production had been improving over the last few weeks and that a good second half performance is expected.

Elsewhere, Hargreaves’ transport division is slightly ahead of expectations although dry bulk fleet is slightly behind budget.

“The board is confident of achieving management expectations for the full year and remains encouraged by the prospects for the group into the medium term,” it said in a statement.

“The group has significant organic development opportunity which in the short term will focus on the new coal operations in Belgium and Poland, the Rocpower initiative and the continuing strategic investment at Maltby. The board continues to monitor, evaluate and review acquisition opportunities.”

Hargreaves Services will report its interim results on February 16.