Reported by Staff

COLORADO SPRINGS - This fall Springs Utilities in Colorado Springs, will contract with a biomass management company to deliver woody biomass to its Martin Drake Power Plant, according to the company.

Terry Meikle, the biomass project manager for Colorado Springs Utilities, said burning sawdust at Martin Drake Power Plant is “an awesome project. It’s the right thing to be doing for the community and for the environment.”

Meikle says the available wood biomass supply is enough to continuously blend 15 percent biomass with 85 percent coal. He has been leading efforts to produce biomass energy in the area. That 15 percent will produce roughly 150,000 megawatts per year. The wood biomass will include forestry in a 75-mile radius, including trees killed by pine beetles, and urban biomass such as pallets and tree trimmings

“We have a couple mitigation fuels that are available to us, as well,” Meikle added, including wood pellets, energy crop pellets, and paper and cardboard pellets. With the addition of biomass, the power plant will be one of the few in the nation capable of  burning three types of fuel — coal, natural gas and biomass.

The Springs Utilities biomass project will involve construction of a receiving, storage, processing and injection facility for unit 7 at the plant, plus the addition of new burners to an existing boiler required for biomass compatibility.

The receiving hopper, conveyor system, storage silo, grinding system and injection system will cost about $10 million. Construction has not yet begun, but commercialization is slated for 2011, Meikle said. Springs Utilities, which serves 200,000 people with electricity, has been awarded a $250,000 USDA Woody Biomass Utilization Grant, and Meikle says an
application has been submitted for a $5 million federal stimulus fund grant.