After delays, labour disputes and hardware failures pushed the operational start date for the Merritt Green Energy project back by months, builders are almost ready to turn the keys over to the operators of the biomass-fired generator.
Though the plant is now generating power and selling it back to BC Hydro, there are a few repairs left for Iberdrola Energy Projects Canada to make before the plant can be considered fully operational, explained John Turner, vice president of operations for Veolia North America — one half of the companies financing the project.
“There are still a few things that are going to take a little bit longer to sort out,” said Turner. “And things [that] are going to need the boiler to go down to sort out.”
Once Iberdrola has completed their construction obligations, the keys to the facility will be turned over to a company responsible for operating the plant; a limited partnership known as Merritt Green Energy. That company is financed by two backers: Veolia North America and Fengate Capital Management.
But Iberdrola is likely to remain in the picture until July, when the company will make repairs to the plant’s boiler during a planned shutdown, said Turner. “Rather than take the boiler down to stop generating electricity when BC Hydro is counting on us — and they have over the last couple of weeks.”
The 40 megawatt plant will generate 285,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year — enough to power about 30,000 homes, Turner told the Herald.
Once slated to be fully operational in the fall of 2017, damage to the plant’s turbines discovered during routine inspection resulted in months of delays.
The plant generates electricity by superheating wood residuals and sawdust, and using the gas and steam to turn turbines.
