More is going on here imo....
Biomass plants say they are not the villain
By Barbara Tetreault
Jul 06, 2011 12:00 am
BERLIN -- The wood-fired independent biomass plants charge Cate Street Capital walked away from negotiations just when it looked like the parties were close to an agreement.
“The fact they withdrew from the deal so abruptly came as a shock to everyone,” said Mike O’Leary, plant manager for Bridgewater Power Company. “We were very very close to a deal.”
Cate Street Capital declared its efforts to construct a 75-megawatt biomass plant on the former pulp mill site are dead after the parties failed to reach an agreement by the Portsmouth company’s deadline of June 30.
Six smaller biomass plants are appealing the Public Utilities Commission’s approval of a power purchase agreement between the Berlin Station and Public Service of N.H. to the state Supreme Court. For several months, Cate Street, PSNH, the PUC, the Independent Power Producers, and state officials including Gov. Lynch have been attempting to negotiate an agreement that would see the IPPs withdraw the appeal.
Cate Street Capital spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne said the company needed an agreement by June 30 to allow it to get its financing in place and meet its winter construction schedule.
O’Leary said the June 30 deadline was not part of the discussion when the negotiations first got underway. He said Cate Street Capital inserted the deadline part way into negotiations. O’Leary said all the IPPs have done is exercise their business rights by filing as intervenors in the PUC docket on the power purchase agreement between Berlin Station and PSNH. He said appealing the PUC’s order to the Supreme Court is part of the process.
Tranchemontagne said the negotiations settled on short term power purchase agreements for the four plants currently without such contracts. He said the IPPS wanted other concessions including a cash payment.
“The IPPS got greedy and started asking for more,” he said Saturday.
O’Leary said Cate Street Capital is trying to make the IPPs the villain when all they are trying to do is protect their jobs, infrastructure, and businesses. He noted that the IPPs have all been in business for a long time. His plant opened in 1984. In contrast, he said Cate Street has never built, owned, or operated a biomass plant.
O’Leary said his company has been operating without a power purchase agreement since August 2010, selling its power on the spot market. He said his company is just hanging on and has been seeking a short term agreement from PSNH since before the Berlin Station was on the PUC docket.
He said the short term contracts are needed to allow the IPPs to keep operating while the legislature considers changes in the Renewable Energy Portfolio that would make the plants more economically viable.
State Senator John Gallus, (R-Berlin), said Cate Street Capital’s decision to stick to its June 30 deadline and walk away from the Berlin Station project is bad news for everybody. He said there will be no short term power purchase agreements for the IPPs which he said means their future is in doubt. Between Berlin Station and the IPPs, Gallus estimated 1,200 direct and indirect jobs are at stake. Plus, he said, the Berlin Station would employ over 300 people in the construction phase - he said many local construction workers had turned down other jobs with the expectation they would work at the biomass site. The plant would also be the city’s largest tax payer and would revive the forest industry.
“We want to see this work out for everybody,” said Gallus.
As part of the negotiations, Gallus said legislators agreed to work to make changes in the Renewable Energy Portfolio that would benefit the IPPs. Now that is unlikely to happen as well.
He said Whitefield Power and Light was the main hold out at last week’s negotiations. He said the company has a power agreement and was seeking additional incentives.
“It seems everyone was dealing at the end except Whitefield,” he said.
O’Leary said the IPPs are still open to further negotiations.
“We want to be at the table. We were so close we were shocked at how abruptly the thing blew up,” he said..
AI
