DERL (Dundee Energy Recycling Ltd.) is a joint venture between the city council and private sector partners, although the local authority recently bought the plant and leased it back to the company.

Responding to suggestions that the incinerator was operating at only a fraction of its capacity, a spokesman has now released details of its workload and what is being done to finally sort out its difficulties.

He said, “In the eight-month period ending November 30, 2004, DERL’s availability levels — the percentage of time when the plant’s boilers were running — averaged 70 to 75%, an increase on the previous year’s 63% availability.

A work programme had started in spring 2004 to carry out remedial work and this was now nearing its conclusion, he said.

“The stoppage this month is very short, just two days, and it’s to fit monitoring equipment. All the big shutdowns are now behind us.

“The situation is like a racing car being taken off the track for retuning and having new parts fitted to improve performance and prevent breakdowns once it is back in the race.

“The plant is performing far better and is much more stable than in April 2002 when the turnaround process began.”

Stoppages have meant that some waste which would have been incinerated has had to be put in landfill sites instead. However, both councils have confirmed they suffered no financial penalty for this.

DERL was meant to be a state-of-the-art incinerator, using the heat produced from burning waste to produce power to be fed back into the national grid.

It was designed to meet tough emissions standards that the old Baldovie incinerator it replaced had no chance of meeting.

However, its first few years of operation have been anything but smooth.

An Audit Scotland report last year revealed that DERL had built up losses of more than £20 million by the end of 2002. Council accounts showed another £6 million added to that total since.

In July it emerged that the city council had put £2 million into the company to ensure its survival. It had also bought the plant for an undisclosed sum, although it was said to be much less than the £40 million-plus needed to build it.

At the time, the council insisted the deal was a good one for taxpayers because the extra costs of landfilling rubbish instead of incinerating it would have been £4 million.

Every year the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency publishes a survey of local authority waste totals. The last three financial years appeared to show that DERL was incinerating progressively less and less rubbish.

For example, the Dundee total came down from 51,000 tonnes in 2001/02 to 39,000 tonnes in 2003/04. However, the DERL spokesman said this was misleading.

He said, “Figures published by SEPA suggest a drop in waste from Dundee and Angus processed since 2001/02, but real levels have risen as SEPA figures for the subsequent years do not include tonnages of metals removed by DERL from Dundee city waste or residual ash from processing.

“DERL also processes low-hazard clinical waste for NHS Greater Glasgow.”

DERL is contracted to handle 75,000 tonnes of waste annually from Dundee and 30,000 tonnes from Angus. The plant’s full capacity is 120,000 tonnes.

The company said the net tonnage — minus metals and ash — for 2001/02 had been 37,473 tonnes for Dundee and 14,663 tonnes for Angus. By 2003/04 these were 39,191 tonnes and 15,573 tonnes respectively.

No estimate was available for net tonnage during the current financial year, which lasts until the end of March, but gross tonnage was reckoned to end up in excess of 70,000 tonnes for the two councils combined.

The spokesman said production levels had risen despite the series of planned shutdowns for upgrades, which is being funded by the contractors, not by DERL.

The financial restructuring had also helped to put the incinerator on “its most secure footing since it started in 2000”.

The company is in talks with both councils about their long-term waste strategies.

The spokesman said, “DERL expects productivity levels to increase in the coming year following completion of the current programme of phased upgrades.”

A Dundee City Council spokesman said, “The city council has a contract with Dundee Energy Recycling Limited for the company to deal with the city’s waste.

“This covers disposal, whether by incineration or landfill, so there has been no extra cost to the council when the plant has not been operating, when material is unsuitable for incineration or through less waste being dealt with at the plant.”

Dundee City Council sent these tonnages to DERL over these years —2001/02, 69,627 tonnes; 2002/03, 77,527 tonnes; 2003/04, 77,176 tonnes.

In 2004/05, up to the end of November, the amount was 51,428 tonnes. Some was incinerated, some was landfilled.

The spokesman added, “Dundee continues to be a leading Scottish local authority for recycling as much of its waste as possible, thanks to the support that the people of the city give to the council's many recycling initiatives.”

An Angus Council spokeswoman said, “Material has been sent to landfill due to DERL being out of action, but there has been no extra cost to the council.”