In this article
Engineering Support That Never Switches Off
Industry Sector:
Renewable Energy /
Waste Management
Application:
Outtage projects and partnership
Problem
An energy-from-waste recycling facility in Surrey plays a vital prole in managing household waste for more than 1.2 million residents. As part of a long-term PFI contract with the local authority, te site helps divert waste from landfill while generating enough low-carbon energy to power 8,000 homes.
At the heart of this critical infrastructure is a finely turned operation, one that sees over 62,000 tonnes of waste processed each year by a facility that simply cannot afford to stop. With more than 120 personnel on site and a constant flow of waste arriving by the hour, any disruption to operations has serious consequences.
To help maintain the highest levels of performance and reliability, the site turned to ERIKS, not just for parts, but for partnership.
Challenge
The facility operates planned shutdowns each year. Every task scheduled within these narrow windows mist be carefully scoped, planned, and delivered – because between shutdowns, there’s no room for failure. The plant must run flawlessly. Waste continues to arrive, trucks keep tipping, and the system needs to keep pace.
While the site had previously worked with various service providers, there was a growing need for a partner who could deliver not only rapid response times, but also the diagnostic expertise to identify problems before they escalated to failures.
In the lead-up to the September 2024 shutdown, early reliability checks revealed a serious concern: increasing vibration in both the Induced Draft (ID) fan and the Under Fire Air (UFA) systems. These are fundamental to the site’s operation. If either fails, the entire waste-handling process comes to a halt.
Solution
The facility operates planned shutdowns each year. Every task scheduled within these narrow windows mist be carefully scoped, planned, and delivered – because between shutdowns, there’s no room for failure. The plant must run flawlessly. Waste continues to arrive, trucks keep tipping, and the system needs to keep pace.
While the site had previously worked with various service providers, there was a growing need for a partner who could deliver not only rapid response times, but also the diagnostic expertise to identify problems before they escalated to failures.
In the lead-up to the September 2024 shutdown, early reliability checks revealed a serious concern: increasing vibration in both the Induced Draft (ID) fan and the Under Fire Air (UFA) systems. These are fundamental to the site’s operation. If either fails, the entire waste-handling process comes to a halt.
Results
What started as a potential failure became a seamless recovery. The September shutdown eleven separate projects carefully scoped and executed work.
The impact was clear. There was zero unplanned downtime in the months following the outage. Reliability improved across multiple critical systems. And ERIKS delivered full technical reporting with future-focused recommendations to support ongoing asset management.
Confidence in the partnership was immediate. ERIKS was invited back to tender for the next planned shutdown in early 2025, where even deeper work was carried out on the ID fan and other high-risk systems. That collaboration is now an embedded part of the site’s preventative maintenance strategy, and a clear example of how responsive engineering support makes a lasting difference.
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