METLEN has successfully achieved “First Fire on Waste” at the Protos Energy Recovery Facility (ERF), which it is developing for Encyclis in Cheshire, northwest England.

The first firing with waste marks a significant milestone, confirming that the state-of-the-art facility has now entered the final stages of hot commissioning.

Once fully operational, Protos ERF will be capable of processing 500,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste annually, generating up to 49.9MW of electricity around the clock, enough to power approximately 90,000 households.

The process supports the circular economy by recovering resources from household and commercial waste left over after recycling, known as residual waste. Alongside electricity generation, the ash produced through the combustion process is converted into aggregate materials for construction, while ferrous and non-ferrous metals are also recovered for reuse.

METLEN acted as the strategic contractor on the project, undertaking the engineering, equipment procurement and turnkey implementation on behalf of Encyclis, in cooperation with Standardkessel Baumgarte GmbH.

The project was the company’s first Waste-to-Energy project, involving multiple technical challenges and difficulties. Achieving the first-fire milestone was made possible by the established expertise of METLEN’s workforce, despite the schedule and cost challenges that arose during implementation and to which the company has previously referred extensively.

The first waste combustion in this complex project also confirms the advantages of the merger of the former M Renewables and M Power Projects under the unified M RESET platform. In a particularly demanding environment for the European construction and energy infrastructure sectors—with rising material costs, supply-chain pressures and increased challenges in delivering complex projects in recent years—METLEN is demonstrating through M RESET that it is one of the few companies capable of delivering complex thermal power projects with methodical execution and persistence despite adverse conditions, earning the respect of the market.

The restructuring and addition of highly skilled personnel to M RESET are intended to ensure continuity of the company’s long-standing track record in the sector. At the same time, before undertaking any new thermal power project, the company says it will put in place all necessary measures to ensure execution “on time and on budget,” which has traditionally been the company’s motto.

METLEN has maintained a strong presence in the UK energy market for more than a decade, having completed or currently undertaking more than 90 projects, including solar parks, battery energy storage systems, grid projects and advanced natural gas facilities that help ensure electricity-system stability.

Its UK portfolio also includes a Synchronous Condenser facility, as well as two High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) converter stations as part of the flagship Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) project.