AUGUSTA – The Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) issued a statement today praising Emera Maine’s decision to provide a discount on the transmission charges paid by northern Maine generators that wheel their power into the ISO-New England grid as great news for Maine’s biomass industry and the loggers, truckers, wood products manufacturers and rural communities that depend on it in northern Maine.
Emera Maine has announced that it will seek approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to provide a reduction to $0 per megawatt-month (a 100% reduction) from Oct. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2019 and a reduction to $1,132 per megawatt-month (an approximate 75% reduction) from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.
“This announcement is great news for the forest economy value chain in northern Maine, including hundreds of Maine loggers and truckers who rely on ReEnergy’s biomass facilities in Ashland and Fort Fairfield as a critical market for low grade wood that is produced in selective, sustainable timber harvesting,” Dana Doran, Executive Director of the PLC, said. “Additionally, this ensures that the wood products manufacturers in northern Maine also have an outlet for their production residuals. This is also vital to Maine’s loggers and truckers because if the mills cannot dispose of their byproducts, then the entire value chain is disrupted. The economic and forest health benefits of the biomass industry in Maine are tremendous, and we commend Emera for making a decision that will benefit that industry and allow Maine biomass energy producers to compete more effectively in the regional energy market by lowering the barrier posed by multiple transmission charges for wheeling power through New Brunswick to the ISO-New England power grid in order to take advantage of the renewable energy market in Connecticut.”