Waste-to-energy plant construction picking up steam

Local governments are showing increased interest in having waste-to-energy (WTE) plants process their trash and produce electricity.

According to Frank Ferraro, vice president of public affairs at Hampton, N.H.-based Wheelabrator Technologies, government interest in WTE plants is being driven by high energy costs, near-capacity landfills and a need to boost revenue.

“I think it’s somewhat of a combination of all of those,” Ferraro told GovPro.com. “We are all familiar with what happened with energy prices, and I don’t think that any of us believe that they are going to stay as low as their current levels. And there’s the opportunity … [for communities] to make some revenue from the sale of electricity.”

According to the Energy Information Administration, 1 ton of garbage firing an industrial boiler in a WTE plant generates about 525 kilowatt-hours of electricity – enough energy to heat a typical office building for one day. What’s more, in 100 pounds of typical garbage, more than 80 pounds can be burned as fuel to generate electricity at a WTE power plant, so there’s less garbage winding up at landfills.

A Wheelabrator-owned and operated WTE plant in Maryland offers steady production, Ferraro told GovPro.com.

“We supply 40 percent of the steam for heating and cooling the downtown buildings in the city of Baltimore through a district heating loop,” Ferraro explained. “These kinds of plants also produce electricity that’s sold to the local utilities, and that provides a nice baseload of power where the power’s needed, as well as revenue to the local government.”

The Wheelabrator Baltimore facility provides environmentally safe disposal of municipal solid waste for the city and county of Baltimore, and serves 850,000 residents by processing up to 2,250 tons per day of municipal solid waste. Wheelabrator Baltimore has an electric generating capacity of 60,000 kilowatts – the equivalent of supplying the electrical needs of 68,000 Maryland homes.

Public purchasers have a role

Public-sector purchasing professionals have a role in shepherding a WTE plant from blueprints to completion, according to Robin Davidov, who is executive director of the Baltimore-based Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority. Eight Maryland cities and counties are members of the authority.

“The procurement officer is essential to a successful project,” Davidov said.

For local governments assessing the feasibility of a WTE plant, Davidov offered these pointers:

• Get help from a consultant who has managed a procurement for a public-private project; there are several who have direct experience with WTE.
• Make sure that only technologies that are demonstrated for at least three years at the size required by the local governments are considered. Local governments do not need to be laboratories for emerging technologies, and there always is a cost.
• Make sure the procurement regulations are “public-private partnership”-friendly. Many local governments’ regulations are not conducive to such an arrangement.
• If the project is going to be financed with revenue bonds, the government’s bond counsel should be consulted early on. Bond counsel will know which contract terms will be acceptable to the bond purchaser (who is represented by the rating agencies for the most part). A bond counsel with WTE experience also is important.
• The law department will need expert help during negotiations of the lengthy contracts with the vendor.
• The financial officer should be included early on. Unless the local government has a system for managing system revenues, it cannot support a revenue bond for a WTE.
• This is a team effort, and not for the faint of heart. But WTE is environmentally the best waste alternative for non-recycled waste, according to Davidov.
• The local government will receive an added benefit by buying the power from the WTE directly in states that allow this type of transaction.

Davidov’s group, the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, has a number of WTE operations, including the Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility, which processes an average of 1,500 tons per day of solid waste, generating up to 55 megawatts of renewable energy – enough power for 40,000 homes.

A timely benefit

As more and more states adopt renewable energy standards, WTE plants offer a timely benefit, Wheelabrator’s Ferraro noted.

“In the vast majority of states that have adopted renewable standards, the electricity from WTE plants is considered renewable,” Ferraro said.

Last year in Ohio, for instance, state legislators passed a comprehensive electric regulation bill that included standards for alternative-energy generation. It calls for at least 25 percent of all electricity sold in Ohio to come from alternative sources by 2025. At least half of that must be generated by renewable sources, such as biomass, wind, solar, hydropower or geothermal.

Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 will outline some useful networking sources for government officials contemplating the feasibility of a WTE plant in their community.