Two biomass power plants shut down Ashland, Athens facilities to be closed at least four months

ASHLAND – One biomass power plant in Ashland and another in Athens in Somerset County have been shut down until at least the end of September.

Quebec-based Boralex Inc., which owns five biomass electricity generating plants in the state, shut down the two operations at the end of May, citing the high cost of wood fuel needed to run boilers at the plants.

At full capacity, the Ashland plant uses about 400,000 tons of waste wood – such as sawdust and wood chips – a year from area sawmills.

“Wood fuel is now too expensive to operate at an economical price,” Jean Roy, the Boralex general manager who oversees the company’s biomass plants in Maine, New York and Quebec, said Monday during a telephone interview.

Roy said Boralex officials are evaluating the market conditions on a weekly basis. While plans call for the two plants to reopen at the end of September, that is not guaranteed.

The price of fuel and the price for which the company can sell electricity are both being watched carefully and “if nothing happens … then we would keep them down longer,” Roy said.

The shutdowns have put about 35 people out of work. Roy said four people still are working at the Ashland plant, and two or three others have transferred to the Boralex plant in Fort Fairfield where there were vacancies.

The company also operates generating plants in Stratton in Franklin County and Livermore Falls in Androscoggin County. Those plants were not affected by the shutdowns.

At full capacity, the Ashland plant can generate 34 megawatts of power. The Athens plant can generate 16 megawatts.

Roy said the two plants that closed have contracts to generate power at a price of between 9 cents and 12 cents a kilowatt hour, but the market price from other power sources right now ranges from 2 cents to 3.5 cents a kilowatt hour.

He said that in Maine as well as elsewhere across the country, the cheaper cost to generate power at larger plants, such as those that use natural gas, makes it difficult for small operations like the ones in Maine to compete.

He added that the deregulated power market has only added to the problem since consumers now can shop around for the least expensive power.

With cheaper power available, Roy said consumers are less willing to play a little more for electricity generated from renewable sources such as waste wood.

So-called green options, he said, could add a half-cent per kilowatt to consumers’ bills.

Meanwhile, mills in Aroostook County that were sending their waste wood to the Ashland plant have had to find other outlets.

Dan Levesque, general manager for the Fraser Papers sawmill group, including the J. Paul Levesque & Sons mill in Ashland, said he is sending waste wood to Fraser’s biomass plant in Edmundston, New Brunswick, and Great Northern Paper in Millinocket.

He said other than having to haul the wood a little farther, there have been not significant problems. That might change, however, if more biomass plants shut down.

“That might make things more difficult,” he said. “I’m watching it closely.”

Meanwhile, the generator that was at Ashland has been moved to its sister plant in Livermore Falls.

Roy explained that shortly after the Ashland mill was shut down, the generator at Livermore Falls broke down. In order to keep that plant in operation, it was decided to move the Ashland generator to Livermore Falls and bring the broken unit to Ashland to be repaired. Those repairs are expected to be completed in August, he said.