Oakes Energy Services completes water treatment plant upgrade

Oakes Energy Services has completed an upgrade to the Coal Authority’s Dawdon Mine Water Treatment Scheme in County Durham, designed to showcase how homes can be heated using geothermal energy from abandoned mines.The Houghton-le-Spring-based company, part of Pacifica Group, has worked in partnership with heat pump specialist Kensa to redesign and upgrade the facility’s heat pump technology to demonstrate how the water can be extracted and utilised for home and commercial property heating systems.The Dawdon Mine Water Treatment Scheme has also been earmarked to support the nearby planned Seaham Garden Village, which will benefit from mine water heating.The garden village will comprise 750 affordable homes, 750 private homes, a school, shops and medical and innovation centres. It will be supplied with heat from the mine water treatment scheme located less than a quarter of a mile away, which treats water abstracted from an extensive network of flooded abandoned local coal mines.