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 The power company's unique partnership with logging contractors in Maine features Morbark as a preferred supplier of chippers.
The recent push by Ontario Power Generation to look at using biomass in
coal-fired generating stations, gave a much-needed boost to the
material as a viable fuel alternative. One of the biggest players in
that market, Boralex LP, operates a half dozen biomass plants in the
northeast U.S., five of which can, at peak performance, generate an
impressive 240 megawatts per hour (MW/Hr) of electricity.
What truly
sets them apart from the other companies, however, is the way in which
they ensure a steady stream of feedstock material to their plants:
drawing upon a combination of creative business practices and solid
performance from an ever-growing fleet of chippers to recycle better
than two million tons of wood residue each year.
Capitalizing on an opportunity
Founded in the early 1990s, Boralex is part of the Quebec-based Cascade
Group, and one of the area’s key producers of energy from
wood-residue. Feedstock materials include forest-based products such
as bark, tree tops and branches, as well as recycled wood waste such as
cable drums, pallets, recycled wood, railroad ties, tree stumps, etc.
According to Eric Dumond, the company’s procurement supervisor,
Boralex, under the guidance of its founder, Bernard Lemaire, purchased
a number of biomass plants that had been idled by the deregulation push
of the ‘80s
“In the early ‘90s, Boralex came along and did what it’s been shown to
do best – see energy opportunities and capitalize upon them. Today, we
own and operate hydroelectric plants, biomass facilities, cogeneration
plants and wind farms throughout the northeast U.S., Quebec and France
— resulting in a company-wide production capacity of better than 350
MW/hr.”
 Totally different approach
In the State of Maine, the overwhelming bulk of the power generated by
Boralex is through those five biomass plants, and ensuring a steady
stream of material to feed them is an ongoing effort. While the
company contracts with area loggers and land clearing companies to
purchase and stockpile the forest-derived material upon which it
relies, Dumond says they still take steps to avoid interruptions to
that flow. One of the ways they’ve done so is through a unique series
of arrangements with many of their suppliers.
“We identify an area that needs logging, and, if there is no contractor
in that area, or no one capable of handling additional work, we find
someone, either through our own contacts or, more often, through
Nortrax, our equipment supplier. If necessary, we will purchase a
piece of equipment — anything from a chip trailer, to an excavator, to
a chipper itself — and the contractor will pay it off in
dollars-per-ton across our scales. So, for example, we might buy a
chipper, and sign a five-year, low-interest agreement with a contractor
based on a 40,000 to 50,000 ton per year volume. He supplies the
support equipment, goes to work, and for every ton that he delivers, we
take a percentage off for payment on the machine. At the end of five
years he owns the machine outright, we’ve gained an additional
supplier, and we got the added volume we needed.”
Dumond adds that, during Maine’s “mud season,” four to eight weeks in
which work is near impossible due to snow melt and inaccessibility of
the areas, the company waives payment.
“This entire approach has done a couple things for us,” he says.
“First, it has ensured the consistency of our deliveries; we can look
out several months and know that the plants will have the fuel they
need. More importantly, however, we’ve gone from seeing those
contractors as suppliers to viewing them as partners and that’s been
important for all parties concerned.”
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