The plant is located in the Northumberland countryside, north of Alston, and treats water from nearby springs to supply local houses with drinking water. Having reached the end of its operational life, rather than scrapping the 8 metre x 5 metre treatment plant, Northumbrian Water Ltd offered the facility to TTE.
In keeping with TTE’s commitment to providing a variety of skills development opportunities for young people, a group of young people have been charged with dismantling the plant and returning it to the training centre in Middlesbrough.
A team of four learners and two trainers have been dispatched to Northumberland for a week-long project to strip out the plant’s parts and equipment while photographing each element to enable it to be rebuilt at TTE.
Once recommissioned, the plant will be connected to a water supply to enable TTE learners to undertake a range of training exercises including operation, maintenance, sample testing and instrumentation measurements.
TTE, which holds charitable status, operates an extensive, training facility that includes workshops featuring industry-standard equipment such as a three-phase separator, which replicates the process of removing hydrocarbons from the sea bed, and a fully-operational process plant and control room.
Northumbrian Water is committed to training young people and has been working with TTE for more than eight years. Currently it has a group of electrical and mechanical apprentices training at TTE’s centre in Middlesbrough with another group working at Northumbrian Water sites across the UK.
Steve Grant, Managing Director of TTE, said: “We are very grateful to Northumbrian Water for the donation of the plant, which will enhance the variety of training scenarios available at TTE. It also presents quite a unique opportunity for a group of trainees to take part in a residential work placement, which will provide them with experiences and new skills that they will no doubt apply throughout their careers.”
Chris Adnett, Engineering Training Coordinator at TTE, said: “This was a great opportunity for the learners to, literally, operate out in the field. It enables them to transfer the skills they have learnt in the training centre to a live project as the decommissioning process was carried out to industry-standard specifications, including stringent health and safety protocols.”
Adam Bell, Project Acceptance Engineer at Northumbrian Water Ltd, said: “Working with partners, such as TTE, to develop the skills of the workforce of the future is something that we believe is very important, not only for our business, but for the industry as a whole.
“This donation of our old plant will help to meet the needs of these young people, by giving them experience of handling real kit, so it makes far more sense to use it in this way than to simply scrap it.”