Trash plant problems
The aging regional trash-to-energy plant in Hartford has suffered another partial breakdown, a malfunction that comes less than eight months after catastrophic equipment failures forced a complete and costly closure of the facility.
The aging regional trash-to-energy plant in Hartford has suffered another partial breakdown, a malfunction that comes less than eight months after catastrophic equipment failures forced a complete and costly closure of the facility.
One of the plants two giant turbines, both of which were repaired following the November 2018 shutdown, was taken offline on June 21 and shipped to St. Louis for major repairs, according to the plant’s operators. The turbine is expected to be back in Hartford on or before Aug. 15.
The Hartford facility, which normally burns about 2,000 tons of garbage a day to power the turbines that produce electricity, is currently incinerating approximately 1,800 tons a day, according to Thomas Kirk, president of the Materials Innovation Recycling Authority, the quasi-state agency that runs the regional facility. About 200 tons of trash per day are being shipped for burial in Pennsylvania and New York landfills.
Kirk said the regional trash system’s 51 member cities and towns won’t be charged additional fees or have any of their garbage shipped out of state.
But private garbage haulers are being charged an additional $15 a ton for the extra expense of having their refuse sent by MIRA to out-of-state landfills, Kirk said. The added charge means private haulers bringing trash to the Hartford plant are now paying $100 a ton.
Equipment failures have become almost routine at the Hartford plant, which was originally built in the 1940s and converted to burn trash in 1988. The facility’s two turbines were also built in the 1940s, but experts say those types of power-generating machines are often kept in service for many decades.
MIRA is currently in lengthy negotiations with a developer partnership called Sacyr-Rooney to take over the Hartford plant, update its equipment and modernize its operations. But those talks only recently moved past a deadlock that lasted more than a year, and officials say many key financial issues still need to be negotiated.
The turbine now in St. Louis for repairs is expected to be back in Hartford “by Aug. 15 or sooner,” Kirk said. He said the cost of repairs would be “in the six figures” but the exact amount isn’t yet known.
Kirk said the problems with the turbine were causing vibrations that triggered an automatic safety shutdown. He said the exact cause of this new malfunction isn’t yet known but that it appears similar to the problem that resulted in the November failure.
“We expect this [repair] to fundamentally and finally fix the problem,” Kirk said. “This is not going to be a routine, twice-a-year issue.” He said any further breakdowns of this turbine would likely
result in a decision to replace it.
MIRA paid about $6.1 million for shipping both of the plant’s huge turbines that broke down in November 2018 to St. Louis and to have them repaired.
Last year’s complete trash plant shutdown lasted nearly three months and cost MIRA nearly $15 million. The result was an increase in tipping fees of more than 15 percent for the regional system’s 51 member cities and towns. Those higher fees cost member communities hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A Bloomfield official estimated that the higher tipping fees would cost his town more than $40,000 in added costs for refuse disposal in 2019-20. Officials in Hartford, which sends about 30,000 tons of garbage a year to the plant in the South Meadows section of the city, projected the increased fees could add $167,000 or more for the fiscal year that began July 1.
MIRA has already received about $7 million in insurance payments connected to the total plant breakdown that lasted until the end of January. Kirk said the quasi-public agency has filed additional insurance claims and those are now under negotiation.
But the operation’s coverage included a $250,000 deductible for each of the turbines that broke down last year.
Insurance for millions of dollars in added costs to send thousands of tons of garbage for out-of-state disposal didn’t kick in until 45 days after the November 2018 shutdown.