ACCIONA Agua has been awarded the contracts to operate and maintain the waste water treatment plants of the Cuenca Baja and Cuenca Media-Alta sections of the Arroyo Culebro belonging to Canal de Isabel II Gestión.

Both contracts started on 1 March 2017 and last for four years. They are worth a total of €27.5 million (incl. VAT). The plants serve a population equivalent to 2.5 million people with a combined maximum treatment capacity of 4 m³/second and an annual output of more than 40 million cubic metres.

Both plants use biological nutrient removal and tertiary treatments and have cogeneration facilities that generate more than 11,500 MWh per year of electricity from the biogas produced by the sludge digestion, enough to supply around 10,000 people.

Both plants are also equipped with cutting-edge technology for treating waste water. The Cuenca Baja Arroyo Culebro plant uses a co-digestion process that boosts its normal power production by up to 40%, recycling non-hazardous co-substrates produced by various industrial processes.

Meanwhile, the Cuenca Media-Alta Arroyo Culebro plant uses an advanced tertiary treatment, at the forefront of the sector in Europe, capable of supplying 12,400 cubic metres per day of high-quality reclaimed water to the paper manufacturing industry using advanced processes such as ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. Furthermore, its facilities include a waste water recycling unit capable of producing reclaimed water for irrigation uses in the parks and gardens of the municipalities of Getafe, Fuenlabrada, Parla, Humanes and Alcorcón, and in the future for Pinto, Leganés and Rivas-Vaciamadrid.