As we are all aware energy costs are rising and the world continues to be a strange place; in fact, this winters power prices are projected to go to previously unimaginary levels, the price of gas in April 2021 was £0.02 per kW hour and now looking forwards to January next year the market has a forward price of £0.15per kW hour! Clearly this is going to be very difficult for the UK, as a whole to get through, however the anaerobic digestion industry has a role to play by producing as much power as possible, whether it be gas or electricity. The more we produce the greater the ability of the UK to meet winter demands as well as maximising facility revenues.

Given the importance of generating maximum energy output it’s essential that our plants are well prepared to operate without interruption. And how do we do this? Well, there are a number of things we can think about now and take action where required; is our biology stable and healthy, are my digesters free of grit and operating at full operational volume, are my pumps, drives and instrumentation in the best possible shape to keep on rolling. Another major factor that needs to be considered is the shortage of key spares; issues in the world over the past few years with covid etc has meant that factories have worked less hours and transport networks are less efficient than in pre-pandemic times leading to a smaller number of spares hanging around in local UK warehouses.

The temptation when you have been running your plant successfully over a number of years is to move your maintenance contracts from larger companies with high overheads to the guy up the road you can call in to help you as and when required. Now even with the most well-maintained plants, breakdowns do occur and when it does, not only do you want a competent person on the end of the phone, but you want a company, like Marches Biogas, that holds spares in stock and has the key relationships in the industry so they can quickly source parts where required or offer an alternative solution.

With the high value of wholesale energy, the cost of downtime has never been so critical and minimising this is key to maximising revenues.  At Marches Biogas, our operational support team can help provide peace of mind that any breakdown or process instability will be dealt with efficiently in a cool and calm manner getting your system back up to maximum output in no time.