Works to dismantle Delimara chimney to start next month

The board of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has approved the IPPC permits for the partial surrender of the Delimara Power Station and the Marsa Power Station.

The permit for the Delimara Power Station covers the dismantling of the chimney and structures related to the operations of the Delimara Phase I plant together with the continued operations of Delimara 2a and 2b (gas turbines) operated by Enemalta Plc., Delimara 3 (diesel engine) operated by D3 Power Generation Ltd., and Delimara 4 CCGT and LNG Terminal operated by ElectroGas Malta Ltd.

The permit for the Marsa Power Station covers the dismantling of most of the structures remaining on site, together with the continued operation of one open-cycle gas turbine and the retention of the associated gas oil storage tank for use as an emergency back-up plant.

The IPPC permits granted cover a number of monitoring obligations, which operators are to fulfill throughout the four-year validity of the permits, as well as specific conditions related to the dismantling operations so as to ensure the required level of environment protection.

The chimney is synonymous with the polluting heavy fuel oil, which has been phased out following the construction of the gas-fired power plant.

Enemalta shipped in specialised equipment for the dismantling of the structure, the highest structure in Malta. The Italian contractors working with Enemalta for the project were shortlisted in December, following an international call for tenders.

The chimney structure comprises a cylindrical concrete shield rising up more than 50 storeys, with a base diameter of 12 metres. The concrete walls are two metres thick at the bottom and 60 centimetres on top. Inside the concrete structure there are two 2.3 metre steel exhaust pipes that emit the smoke produced by the oil-fired boilers.

The dismantling process will start with the lowering of the two steel pipes and all metal structures inside the chimney, using strand jacks, so that they can be dismantled on the ground. To demolish the outer structure, the contractors will then erect an auto-lifting platform on five steel columns all the way to the top. Remote-controlled demolition robots on top of this platform will then be used to demolish the first 1.5 metres of the concrete walls. The platform will then be lowered 1.5 metres for the demolition robots to continue the demolition.

It is understood that this process will repeatedly some 80 times until the chimney is lowered to 35 metres.