Great Blakenham EfW
An EfW facility based upon conventional combustion technology and considered an ERF based on its R1 status. Great Blakenham has permitted operational capacity of 269,000 tonnes per annum, operated and owned by Suez it was part refinanced by Suffolk County Council in late 2018 for 22.6% of the value of the plant. Delivery of waste is by road and the facility processes primarily residual Household Waste and some Commercial Waste[1]
| Great Blakenham EfW Operational | |
 See Residual EfW → page for a larger UK Wide map. | |
| Waste Licence | WP3438HZ |
| Operator | SUEZ |
| Region | Eastern |
| Operational Capacity | 295ktpa |
| Is site R1? | Yes |
| When was R1 Granted? | 2014-06-05 |
| What was the R1 value | 0.83 |
| Electrical Capacity | 26.00MWe |
| Number of Lines | 2 |
| Number of Turbines | 1 |
| CHP | No |
| Technology Approach | EfW Incineration |
| Funding Type | PFI |
Operators Annual Report
Input Data
| Year | HH | C&I | Clin | RDF | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 234975.00 | 823.00 | 1876.00 | 28866.00 | 266539.00 |
| 2017 | 244732.00 | 865.00 | 2253.00 | 19345.00 | 267195.00 |
| 2018 | 231780.00 | 1285.00 | 2345.00 | 30757.00 | 266167.00 |
| 2019 | 240953.00 | 25836.00 | 3983.00 | 0.00 | 270776.00 |
| 2020 | 249840.00 | 38469.00 | 3077.00 | 0.00 | 291389.00 |
| 2021 | 233448.00 | 54170.00 | 3991.00 | 0.00 | 291609.00 |
| 2022 | 219661.00 | 58568.00 | 4808.00 | 0.00 | 283037.00 |
Output Data
| Year | IBA | IBA %ge of Tot IN | APC | APC %ge of Tot IN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 49830.48 | 18.70% | 6250.64 | 2.35% |
| 2017 | 49033.62 | 18.35% | 6264.84 | 2.34% |
| 2018 | 62881.86 | 23.62% | 6508.28 | 2.45% |
| 2019 | 47389.00 | 17.50% | 5754.00 | 2.13% |
| 2020 | 58294.00 | 20.01% | 6300.00 | 2.16% |
| 2021 | 53574.00 | 18.37% | 7150.00 | 2.45% |
| 2022 | 48055.00 | 16.98% | 7046.00 | 2.49% |
Summary
An EfW facility based upon conventional combustion technology and considered an ERF based on its R1 status. Great Blakenham has permitted operational capacity of 269,000 tonnes per annum, operated and owned by Suez it was part refinanced by Suffolk County Council in late 2018 for 22.6% of the value of the plant. Delivery of waste is by road and the facility processes primarily residual Household Waste and some Commercial Waste[2]
History
The Great Blakenham facility was built primarily to service a 25 year PFI contract signed in October 2010 with Suffolk County Council for 170,000 tonnes per annum with later short term capacity offered to Norfolk County Council for 40,000 tonnes per annum to 2021, and then at a reduced rate to 2027[3]. It is located on the outskirts of Ipswich and has been operational since 2014.
Plant
Built by CNIM which started in 2012 and was delivered in June 2014 at a reported £167m capital cost based on the refinancing value. The plant comprises 2 lines via standard combustion technology Martin Reverse Acting Grate, generating super-heated steam, and is configured to run on primarily residual Household Waste and similar residual Commercial Waste.
Local Authority Data
The table below lists those local authorities who have recorded their tonnage on WasteDataFlow as sending their Waste to this site (either directly or via a transfer station) for the most recent financial year, data was updated on 2023-04-26. The tonnage received cannot be directly compared with the stated historical tonnage received and recorded in the EA statistics as these are recorded on a calendar year basis (i.e. January 2018 to December 2018). The total Local Authority waste received by the plant in the period was: 249,807.61t
A 'zero return' or a below expected return, when compared to the EA Data below indicates that either:
- no local authority tonnage was recorded/no tonnage was sent to the site in the period (but has been listed as it may have previously received tonnage from a local authority) or
- a result of the plant being recently commissioned and actually having received no tonnage or
- a lower than expected tonnage maybe a result of a local authority splitting their tonnage over multiple sites, having less tonnage to send than might be anticipated or
- it may be a new plant being in 'ramp up' towards full capacity after construction or
- may be a result of plant shut down and subsequent re-start in a year or
- the local authority may not have correctly entered the site's details on WasteDataFlow
| Authority | Tonnage |
|---|---|
| Braintree District Council | 1059.870 |
| Castle Point Borough Council | 792.532 |
| East Suffolk Council | 4120.620 |
| Essex County Council | 6494.713 |
| Greenwich LB | 609.600 |
| Ipswich Borough Council | 1599.150 |
| Lewes District Council | 14.420 |
| Mid Suffolk District Council | 2538.050 |
| Norfolk County Council | 26383.510 |
| Suffolk County Council | 203571.684 |
| Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council | 29.510 |
| West Suffolk Council | 2593.950 |
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Waste Tonnage, By Origin
The table shows a list of the Waste for the Permit WP3438HZ, that has arrived into sites as reported to the Regulator and then publicised in their reported statistics. The Data was last updated on October 2023. The total reported tonnage arriving at the site was: 283,038.04t. Where this tonnage exceeds that reported in year of the corresponding annual report, this may be due to the following reasons:
- Tonnage may have been received but not incinerated, i.e. the material is held pending incineration (the operator return to the EA reports as received whereas the annual report focuses on when the waste is incinerated.)
- Material may have been received into the site but treated in some other way than incineration.
- Material may have been received on the but transferred out of site for disposal/treatment at another site rather than incineration on the site.
| EWC Code | Origin of Waste | Tonnes In |
|---|---|---|
| 18 01 04 | Suffolk | 4129.62 |
| 18 01 04 | Essex | 1477.48 |
| 20 03 01 | Norfolk | 23127.88 |
| 18 01 07 | Norfolk | 1.00 |
| 19 12 12 | Suffolk | 19293.82 |
| 19 12 12 | Cambridgeshire | 695.44 |
| 20 03 01 | Suffolk | 202989.14 |
| 19 12 12 | Luton | 308.10 |
| 19 12 12 | Norfolk | 2432.58 |
| 20 03 01 | Essex | 17459.38 |
| 19 12 12 | Northamptonshire | 725.82 |
| 19 12 12 | Essex | 9206.74 |
| 20 03 03 | Suffolk | 1191.04 |