NORTHUMBRIAN Water has unveiled a revolutionary hydro power generation system at a treatment works in the region.

Commissioning of the £1.3m plant at Mosswood water treatment works near Consett, County Durham, is now underway after eight months of construction and technical challenges.

The announcement came in what has been designated Climate Change Week as the utility company won further acclaim for its carbon reduction work.

The new 185kw unit generator is the first unit of its kind installed by the water company. It will create sufficient power to supply the equivalent of some 300 homes and will create enough power to meet a third of the electricity needed to run the entire treatment works and save 200,000 a year.

When added to government incentive scheme subsidies it means that the sites power bill will be cost neutral.

The installation at the treatment works, which supplies some 700,000 customers in the Sunderland, South Tyneside and North Durham area, has been carried out by contractor JN Bentley.

Northumbrian Water already has the biggest hydro plant in England at Kielder Water and other electricity generating assets at Selset and Derwent reservoirs and at a treatment works in the Wear Valley and Darlington.

It is also at the forefront of the industry for creating power from sludge left after sewage treatment with the biggest advanced anaerobic digestion plant of its kind in the country operating at the mouth of the Tees and another under construction at the mouth of the Tyne.

The projects won the utility firm the Best initiative by a large business award in the Climate Week Awards 2012 presented in London.

Climate Change Manager, David Chapman, said: "Northumbrian Water is committed to reduce carbon emissions by 35 per cent by 2020 and utilising every opportunity at its reservoirs and treatment works to increase renewable energy generation."

Northumbrian Water also had two internationally recognised indexes renewed this week.

It was confirmed as one of only 15 businesses in the country to gain Platinum Plus status in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index 2012.

It is also the only UK water utility to be designated as one of the Ethisphere Worlds Most Ethical (WME) Companies 2012 - one of only seven solely UK-based companies to make the international list of 145 companies.