Sund Power Plant excellent marks for environmental protection

SEV’s Environmental Management System at the Sund Power Plant received a high rating during the 2014 inspection conducted by Det Norske Veritas (DNV GL).

The ultimate conclusion of the inspection was that SEV had made great strides in improving the environmental conditions at the Sund Power Plant under its well-executed Environmental Management System. The DNV GL inspection team had only one comment and a minor recommendation for improvement. The team suggested that SEV could also improve its public relations communication regarding the improvements that have occurred.

The Environmental Management System (EMS) is an ISO 14001 approved system, designed and implemented four years ago by Annika Berg, the manager of SEV’s health, safety and environment department (HSE), in collaboration with SEV’s management and staff. Annika Berg is responsible for the day-to-day management of the system.

The EMS system is designed to continually minimize the risk of pollution at SEV’s large oil-fired power plant and to ensure compliance with all regulatory requirements.

„I am quite pleased with the findings of DNV GL. I consider their report a congratulatory acknowledgement of the hard work of both management and staff, and it gives us the courage to persevere and continually improve and enhance the environmental protection efforts at the Sund power plant“, observes Annika Berg, manager of SEV’s HSE department.

Below are some of the improvements that were carried out subsequent to the implementation of the Environmental Management System at the Sund Power Plant.

Environmental improvments undertaken at Sund

• Reduce the probability of oil spilling into the sea (oil pollution discharge). SEV, together with the advisory company COWI A/S, conducted a risk analysis of potential oil discharge at SEV’s oil-fired power plants. New alarm systems were installed to complement existing alarms. Tanks were constructed in such a way that possible oil spills within the power plant could be contained, and work is currently underway to expand the tank farm.
• Reduce the level of oil discharge into Kaldbak fjord. A new cleaning system was installed, ensuring that the level of oil discharge would be no higher than the stipulated 10 ppm.
• Reduce the amount of waste. A steam-cleaning system was installed thus reducing the volume of oil waste delivered to IRF (the inter-municipal waste treatment and recycling company).
• Reduce the amount of cleaning agents. There has been a special focus on limiting the use of environmentally damaging cleaning agents and finding suitable replacement products. There has also been a special focus on the handling of these cleaning agents to mitigate the potential for accidental injury, both to staff and the environment.