Helius Energy Plc Rothes Plant Handed Over for Commercial Operation (2721J)

TIDMHEGY

RNS Number : 2721J

Helius Energy Plc

15 July 2013

15(th) July 2013

Helius Energy plc

Rothes Biomass Energy Plant Handed Over for Commercial Operation

Helius Energy plc ("Helius") announces that reliability and performance trials at the Helius CoRDe Limited ("CoRDe") biomass energy plant in Rothes, Speyside, Scotland have been successfully completed and the plant has now been handed over to CoRDe for commercial operation.

The CoRDe plant uses by-products from nearby malt whisky distilleries to produce renewable energy and liquid animal feed product (Pot Ale Syrup) and will be accredited as a combined heat and power plant under Renewables Obligation legislation.

The project, which includes an 8.32 MW(e) power plant and a 66.5t/h pot ale evaporator plant, is owned and operated by the CoRDe joint venture between Helius Energy Plc, Rabo Project Equity BV and the Combination of Rothes Distillers Limited ("CoRD"). It will generate enough electricity to power 9,000 homes and will save around 46,000 tonnes per year of CO(2) compared to a similarly sized coal-fired facility. A further reduction of 18,000 tonnes of CO(2) per year will be achieved by closing the existing gas fired CoRD facility located at the same site. During performance trials the plant successfully achieved gross power output of 8.4MWe and achieved the net design throughput of 73.2t/h of pot ale through the evaporator plant.

The project will generate revenues from index-linked gate fees received for the processing of distillery residues, the sale of electricity and associated ROC sales, and the sale of Spey Syrup into the animal feed market. CoRDe will continue actively to explore opportunities to increase the distillery residues processed by the project.

Adrian Bowles, Helius CEO, said: "We are delighted to have successfully completed the final testing and handover of the Rothes plant. Completing it on time and within budget sends a very strong message about Helius' ability to deliver biomass projects. The facility has been producing renewable electricity since January this year and will now enter full commercial operation as an outstanding example of renewable energy production in action.

Having again demonstrated our ability to deliver projects, we continue to focus on the financing of our Avonmouth project which we are targeting to finalise later in the financial year."

For more information please contact:

 
Helius Energy plc                                Tel: [phone] 
 Adrian Bowles, Chief Executive Officer 
 Alan Lyons, Chief Financial Officer 
 Numis Securities Limited 
 Richard Thomas, Jamie Lillywhite (as Nominated   Tel: [phone] 
 Adviser) 
 James Black (as Corporate Broker) 
Citigate Dewe Rogerson                           Tel: [phone] 
 Chris Gardner 
 Malcolm Robertson 
 

Notes to Editors

About Helius Energy plc

Helius was established to identify, develop, own and operate biomass fired renewable electricity generation plants. These will help meet the growing need for reliable power from renewable sources.

Helius possesses a significant combination of knowledge of renewable energy markets, biomass energy technologies, biomass fuel sources, project development, implementation and operation of power generation plants.

Helius is also developing a 100MWe project at Avonmouth and bringing forward a similar scale scheme in Southampton. Further sites are in negotiation.

About The Combination of Rothes Distillers Limited

CoRD has been processing by-products from the Speyside whisky industry for over 100 years. It was set up as a joint venture in 1904 to serve the five distilleries then operating in Rothes and, in its early days, specialised in the drying and processing of surplus distillery pot ale into fertiliser cake.

In 1970 CoRD opened its first joint processing plant and handled two key co-products of distilling, draff and pot ale, to produce a finished nutritional animal feeds product - Distillers Dark Grains. In 1974, a second processing plant was added and today CoRD processes by-products from up to 16 Speyside distilleries owned by its shareholders: The Edrington Group, Chivas Brothers, Glen Grant Distillers, Inver House Distillers, Diageo Distilling, Ben Riach Distillers and John Dewar & Sons.

About Helius CoRDe Limited

CoRDe is a Joint Venture created by Helius and CoRD to develop, build, own and operate a biomass combined heat and power plant at Rothes in Speyside, Morayshire, Scotland. Rabo Project Equity BV joined the joint venture in April 2011. Helius owns 50% plus one share of Helius CoRDe, with Rabo Project Equity holding 44.7% (minus one share) and CoRD owning 5.3%.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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