Procter & Gamble and Constellation are developing an up to 50-MW biomass plant that will help run P&G’s paper manufacturing facility in Albany, Ga.
Constellation will build, own and operate the $200 million cogeneration plant, which will supply steam to P&G’s facility and generate electricity for the local utility, Georgia Power.
For more than 30 years, the Albany facility has used a smaller onsite biomass boiler to convert wood scraps into renewable steam, providing about 30 percent of the total energy. The new facility will replace P&G’s aging boiler with a larger combined heat and power biomass unit. Incoming biomass will provide 100 percent of the steam, and up to 60-70 percent of the total energy used to manufacture Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue.
The facility is Constellation’s newest project in its distributed energy business, which has more than 300 MW in operation or under development.
In the initial planning for the facility, P&G and Constellation outlined sustainable “procurement standards” for the project. The plant’s fuel supply will come from biomass that would otherwise have been left to decay, be burned, or potentially be sent to a landfill.
Georgia Power’s purchase of energy from Constellation, at or below Georgia Power’s avoided cost, was made possible under a program developed in coordination with and approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission. Constellation is currently under contract to sell 42 MW of capacity and energy from the 50 MW facility to Georgia Power.
DCO Energy will hold a minority stake in the project and provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project. Constellation’s affiliate, Exelon Generation, will operate and maintain the plant. Sterling Energy Assets worked with Constellation to develop the project.
Construction activities have already begun on the site with the plant scheduled to begin commercial operation in June 2017.
