The construction of the two domed coal storage facilities, made from laminated wood, will employ 300 people for 39 months.
The investment is part of the plants environmental improvement and efficiency plan worth about 500 million euros.
Brindisi, July 6th, 2012 Today, Enel has laid the first foundation stone to begin construction works on the coal storage domes at the Federico II power plant in Brindisi. Together with Enel CEO and General Manager, Fulvio Conti, the ceremony was attended by the vice president of the Region of Puglia, Loredana Capone, the president of the Province of Brindisi, Massimo Ferrarese, and the mayor of Brindisi, Mimmo Consales.
Construction of the domes costs around 120 million euros and over the course of the construction period, which will take an estimated 39 months, up to 300 people will be employed in addition to the 1,000 permanent jobs already guaranteed by the Federico II plant.
We are constantly working to make sure our thermoelectric power plants are confirmed as best practices at the international level and the construction of the domed coal storage facilities at Brindisi is a step in this direction, stated Fulvio Conti. In recent years, we have dedicated substantial investments to the Brindisi plant to put it at the technological forefront and to contribute to local development, also through significant environmental improvements. We are proud to host internationally renowned technicians and scientists, who have come to Brindisi from all over the world, to tackle the best technologies available for the sustainable generation of electricity from coal.
The domes are the product of highly-advanced engineering, fully shared with local institutions, and able to further improve the environmental sustainability of the Brindisi plant. The project will require the involvement of local businesses and labour. The new fully-automated coal storage domes will be built adjacently to and replace the current fuel storage site, which will be decommissioned upon completion of the new domes.
Each dome will be 145 meters in diameter and around 50 meters high, with a storage capacity of about 180,000 metric tons of fuel. The dome covers consist of a geodesic structure made from laminated wood, a solution which makes the project even more compatible from an environmental standpoint. The domes will be equipped with highly automated machinery for unloading and handling coal. New conveyor belts and support 2/2 towers, like those already in place at the Federico II plant, will also be installed to connect the existing coal system to the new domes. This will allow for coal-related logistics to be handled entirely under the cover of the domes. The new covers employ the best technology available on the market today and the most advanced technical solutions to make the Federico II plant a point of reference at the global level for environmental, quality and efficiency standards.
The day at the plant was also the opportunity to explore in more detail the progress made on the environmental works begun in April 2012 on Unit No. 4. An investment of approximately 90 million euros to improve the efficiency and environmental performance of the production unit, leading to the creation of 1,000 jobs for the duration of the work, in addition to those workers already employed at the Federico II plant.
All these projects, combined with upcoming plans to modernize the structures on the shore of Costa Morena, other works that have just been completed and are currently under way, including the environmental upgrades performed with local institutions in 2006, works on coal transport logistics, works carried out on Unit No. 3, as well as the carbon capture and storage system, will complete the planned environmental, efficiency and output enhancement improvements on the plant, a project strongly supported by Enel, which has committed some 500 million euros.
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