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Fort St. James Green Energy plant ‘offline’ until April

Plant manager said the biomass facility had an unforseen circumstance last December.
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Fort St James Green Energy is a biomass facility located in Fort St James, B.C. The 40MW electrical production plant operates 24/7, consuming sawmill and logging waste as fuel. (Fort St. James Green Energy Facebook photo)

Fort St. James Green Energy has been ‘offline’ since the end of December due to ‘an unforseen failure of a critical electrical component.’

Plant manager Jeremy Johnson told the Caledonia Courier that the energy plant will not be in an operational condition until April this year, as replacement parts are procured.

However, there haven’t been any employee layoffs as a result of this issue as “the plant hasn’t shut down, its not operational currently due to unforseen circumstances,” he said.

Fort St. James Green Energy began commercial operations in the first quarter of 2018.

With 34 total employees, the plant turns wood waste into clean electrical power. So various suppliers in the area provide wood waste and the plant combusts the material to general power that goes into the BC Hydro Grid System.

“As with all infrastructure projects, there are normal operating challenges and we are not outside the norm. We continue to work through these challenges and expect the plant to achieve operating capacities by quarter 2 of 2020,” Johnson said.

Melany Helmer, district’s chief administrative officer told the Caledonia Courier that the municipality hadn’t received any formal notice for the plant being down.

READ MORE: Fort St. James’ Veolia Fort Green Energy Plant on its way to completion


Aman Parhar
Editor, Vanderhoof Omineca Express

aman.parhar@ominecaexpress.com

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