As gas, electricity and general livings costs continue to stretch family budgets the government and companies are looking at ways to cut household costs. One new initiative that is being seriously considered is “Poo Power” to provide methane gas as an alternative to the natural gas and electricity we currently use for everyday use.

Water firms including Severn Trent, Wessex Water and Northumbrian Water are preparing to pipe a continuous supply of biomethane gas directly from sewage-treatment plants into the National Grid. Mohammed Saddiq, who is the general manager of GENeco, Wessex Water’s energy company said – “Our customers could be at home frying sausages on gas generated at our sewage treatment works,”

Using methane gas to provide electricity is not a new concept, water firms have used gas produced in sewage treatment to generate electricity on site, but this will be the first time advanced technology to treat methane will produce high-quality biomethane suitable for use in homes.

Some English water firms, including Anglian Water, South West Water, Yorkshire Water, and Southern Water, already have Combined Heat and Power plants where gas produced in water treatment is burnt to produce electricity, which is used to power the plant. In some cases excess is sold on to the Grid.

This new initiative is said to be very popular with the majority of water companies in the UK, in fact some Welsh and Scottish water boards are already providing methane gas to the national grid. Severn Trent was first to activate its gas-to-grid systems, this week, injecting 1,200m3 of biomethane into the Grid from Minworth sewage works in Birmingham.

How do you feel about this? In the very near future you could be cooking your dinner using power created from methane gas….