Energy from Waste - Find a freedom of information request

During the consultation for the energy from waste plant one of the most appealing aspects was the integration of a district heating system to utilise excess heat from the steam circuit. This does not appear to be in place and the site makes use of a number of cooling towers to discharge thermal energy to the atmosphere, which in the opinion of many would be deemed to be a reckless treatment of energy. In order to promote further discussion around the issue please could you provide following information:

An estimate of the useable power, in Watts, which is sunk into the atmosphere from the steam circuit of the EFW plant under normal operating conditions.

I anticipate that any response to this would include historical data, a list of assumptions, a practical definition of "useable energy" and an interpretable calculation, but if you see a better way to make this estimation and make it clear and understandable then please feel free to use it.

The plant has been designed and constructed combined heat and power enabled (CHP enabled). The plant is designed to extract up to 10 MWth of heat from steam extraction with the current turbine design. The extraction of up to 10 MWth are for the purpose of heat use, for example, a district heating scheme.

We have always held the aspiration to utilise the heat through a system such as a District Heating scheme but we have never been able to secure the necessary off-takers for the heat. However we will continue to investigate all possible opportunities to utilise the heat.