Anglian Water invests millions in power from recycled sewage

Anglian Water will invest multi-millions of pounds over the next five years to roll out a process of producing power from recycled sewage.

The company has invested £230 million over the past 10 years to enhance the treatment process at nine of its largest water recycling centres and, in the past year, produced 88.6GWh power.

By 2020 the company plans to invest millions more and is aiming to produce even more renewable energy than it achieved last year.

The electricity is produced by anaerobically digesting sewage sludge, a by-product of the water recycling process. The anaerobic digestion process produces a biogas which is channelled into engines to be converted into heat and electricity. This is then used to power the site and export what’s left back to the grid.

Anglian Water energy manager Matt Pluke said part of the firm’s strategy is to reduce its carbon footprint, largely through maximising the amount of renewable energy it produces.

“Using our region’s sewage to produce energy in this way is a great example of renewable energy,” he said. “You can guarantee that we’re never going to run out and we can keep pushing forward to produce more energy each year. The results we’ve achieved to date are staggering, but we’re aiming even higher over the next five years.

“By changing the way we manage these sites, with dedicated local teams of technicians looking after them, we’ve been able to achieve a threefold increase in the amount of energy we produce over the last five years.

“Projects like this and reducing our reliance on traditional energy sources is definitely something we believe a 21st century water company should be doing more of, it’s something our customers told us they want to see more of and it’s also helping to keep bills broadly flat over the next five years.”