Brookfield details mill boiler plans
10/10/08 | 16 comments

Brookfield details mill boiler plans


Firm winterizing facility
By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff

MILLINOCKET, Maine — Brookfield Asset Management will spend about $1.5 million to winterize and assess the Katahdin Avenue paper mill for a biomass boiler that will generate about 20 megawatts of electricity, a company senior vice president told the Town Council on Thursday.

The official gave councilors the company’s most detailed explanation yet of the many tasks it faces as it works to wean its Katahdin Paper Co. LLC mill from its profit-killing addiction to oil and reopen it as a top-tier paper manufacturer.

Council Chairman Wallace Paul and other councilors had hoped that the mill, which was temporarily shut down on Sept. 2, would reopen in spring 2009. Thirty-nine workers had been laid off as of Monday with as many as 208 workers expected to be cut between the Millinocket mill and its East Millinocket sister mill. Together the mills, operating as Katahdin Paper, are the region’s largest employer.

It doesn’t look like a quick restart will happen, but councilors said they were impressed with Brookfield’s presentation, which occurred behind closed doors for about two hours. Paul called Brookfield’s work and commitment about as good as anyone has a right to expect.

“They are committed to only one thing — seriously working through this process to see what it would take to make [the restart] happen,” Paul said Thursday. “They are looking genuinely and diligently into making this thing happen and it’s not a simple thing. It’s a big, complex thing.”

Just preparing the mill for an as-yet unknown partner who would install and operate the biomass component is a time-consuming, complex and expensive process. The company will spend about $310,000 winterizing the mill, $300,000 heating it over the winter and $336,000 for a heating unit inside the mill, said Daniel Whyte, a vice president of government and stakeholder relations for Brookfield Renewable Power, a Brookfield Asset subsidiary.

In addition, Brookfield Asset has hired Cianbro Inc. and Babcock & Wilcox Inc. to provide an engineering assessment of the mill and of the costs to upgrade its No. 4 boiler and steam equipment to a biomass system. The biomass system would reuse mill steam and burn tree bark and other wood waste to generate electricity for the mill and the New England power grid.

That work begins with Cianbro next week. The assessments alone could cost as much as $500,000 and won’t be finished until mid-November at the earliest with a mill restart not occurring for at least another eight to 10 months, said Bill Manzer, a senior vice president of business strategy and investments for Fraser Papers, the Brookfield-owned company that manages the mill.

Whyte said the assessments are crucial to luring a biomass investment partner to the mill by providing a step-by-step engineering and cost analysis of the biomass installation process. The engineering work will help determine whether a previous bottom-line estimate of $50 million for restarting the mill was accurate.

Brookfield is undertaking the biomass engineering assessments because it believes in the mill’s workers, state-of-the-art $150 million paper machine and strong customer support, Manzer said. The two biomass firms that the company had been working with earlier this summer left the project in late August, he said.

“We had thought that we would do it in partnership with someone,” Manzer said Thursday.

That partner was supposed to do the work Brookfield is now paying to do. With its many millions in profits, Toronto-based Brookfield also can fund the installation and operation of a biomass boiler but chooses not to.

“It’s not one of our core competencies,” said Jeffrey Martin, a senior vice president of energy management services for Brookfield Renewable Power.

Brookfield Renewable specializes in hydro- and wind power production, Whyte said. Biomass power, which would be used to replace oil as the plant’s steam generator, “is a much more complex business for us,” he said.

Fraser specializes in paper manufacturing. The mill burned 400,000 barrels of oil in 2007, but had dramatically increased savings by lowering energy costs, investing $5 million in the East Millinocket plant’s groundwood mill and finding another $2 million in savings annually that vastly improved the already good-quality paper made at the mill.

Whyte said one critical saving workers achieved will make the biomass installation possible: Since 2004 they reduced the mill’s steam usage by 10 percent annually.

Supplying the mill with 385,000 green tons of biomass — the equivalent of about 400,000 cords of wood — would likely employ many woodsmen and truckers, he said.

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Comments
16 comments on this item
On 10/10/08 at 7:26 AM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Classic Brookfield Power Lie:

“It’s not one of our core competencies,” said Jeffrey Martin, from Brookfield Renewable Power.

Not quite clear on this Jeffery; You specialize in power, Fraser specializes in wood~ how hard it is to do bio-mass- is this the Canadian football phase play?

They con a few politicians to hand over the dam in an agreement they promise to make jobs and then boot them to the street, yup a real family company~ Manson family….

.

Brookfield Power goes on to state that they don’t know when or “if” they will reopen, but they want to reassure us that they are working on it~ Kinda gives you that warm feeling all over, oooh wait, no money- no heat- no warmth!

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On January 1st of 2002 Mike Michaud took office for the first time-

On January 18th 2002 Congressman Michaud handed over the changed agreements, the broken charter and rights to our water ways~ now Brookfield Power calls the shots, way to go Mike~ what are you going to give them next?

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On 10/10/08 at 10:16 AM, Bcktndr wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The suggestion that Mike Michaud "gave away" anything that somehow disadvantaged the workers at the Katahdin mills is ludicrous. The sale of the former Great Northern dams and generating capacity was a huge deal that involved many entities and negotiations over a long period of time. In the end it is easy to understand why the people of Millinocket and East Millinocket may feel betrayed by Brookfield at this point but none of it lays at the feet of Mike Michaud. Anybody ever hear of Lambert Bedard? If you want to identify the individual more responsible than anyone for the position of the two mills today you might start with the REAL culprit instead of someone whose vigilant and valiant battles over the years on behalf of the Millinocket and East Millinocket areas as well as the entire state of Maine is without reproach.

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On 10/10/08 at 11:11 AM, apapermaker wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

so Wally Paul (a Brookfield employee) is complimentary of Brookfield's approach to this mess........

Whodda thunk it?

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On 10/10/08 at 11:48 AM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

VIGILANT, are you stoned?

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Complicit is more accurate!!!!

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On 10/11/08 at 10:39 AM, Knightscross wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Move out of Millinocket already. Tired of reading about a bankrupt Mill in a bankrupt town. In 5 years Millinocket will be a Ghost Town anyway.

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On 10/11/08 at 11:27 AM, Katofbangor wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The paper mills in Millinocket and surrounding towns are going is the same direction as the shoe, textile industries......where are they gone? Out of business and moving operations to foreign countries. Having grown up in Millinocket in the 50s and 60's, I can tell you Millinocket does not resemble the town it once was......in many ways, it is already a ghost town...Once the GNP was bought out, that was the beginning of the end of these towns. Moving out in the 80's wolud have been a very smart option for people back then as the writing was on the wall......major changes. For many,many years the paper co was owned and operated by people who had a vested interest in the towns. The mills are no longer run by the demands of the unions, no more double and triple pay for holidays,etc. No longer top salary earners in the State. If people are looking for a the origin to blame for this economic nightmare, look no further than the original GNP as it was this company that kept all other employment out of this region as they owned the towns, the propery in and around the towns, they ran the show. I moved away a very long time ago and have never regretted the move......it is a shame what has become of my home town.

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On 10/11/08 at 12:14 PM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It’s still here, and your always welcome back.

Not to get off subject, but the suppers are plenty, and the activities are still year-round.

Myself, I am look forward to a number of functions and enjoy our warm tight knit community~ its home!

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On 10/13/08 at 11:36 AM, KarenW wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

My God, Mark, you are seething with a feeling of entitlement. Brookfield details plans to spend $1.5 million to keep the mill from deteriorating over the winter and to restart it in the spring, and to you they're the "Manson family" of corporations? Since when is anybody required to run the mill there just to give you a job, presuming that you even work for a living?

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On 10/13/08 at 2:27 PM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

“seething with a feeling of entitlement” ahhh,,, phrase of the week?

No genius, but rather a real close vantage point, that most already know~ Brookfield Power is scum, but evidentially you seem to wish them well.

If your intent is to turn the other cheek, then I apologize, but if you are inferring that they are anything more than toe-jam then you need help!

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Good Christians can always forgive, but an idiot keeps coming back for more!

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On 10/14/08 at 7:49 PM, MartyfromMillinocket wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Which is exactly why we forgive you Mark44...but the darndest thing is .....you keep coming back for more!!!

As for Mark44's "real close vantage point"? Methinks that it is under Eugene C's desk

To summarize....just another armchair expert on all things Millinocket....If one hasn't figured out the broken record that Mark44 is spinning it's called narcissim

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On 10/15/08 at 9:52 AM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Once again Marty doesn’t fail to show his magical gift of tact and wit!

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On 10/15/08 at 10:59 AM, MartyfromMillinocket wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Yes...I agree ....it was rather tacful to expose your hypocrisy Mark44. As for the wit....that was an added benefit for your readling pleasure.

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On 10/15/08 at 11:02 AM, MartyfromMillinocket wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

before Markk4 fanatically corrects my typo......I meant to write......tactful

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On 10/16/08 at 2:08 PM, MillinocketLisa wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Marty continues to toe the MAGIC line. Imagine being a puppet of a puppet! After he had to step down because of his ill-advised accusations about Councilor Busque, he still can't help himself when it comes to taking up for the Polstein-McNeal machine which continues to screw the people in Millinocket.

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On 10/17/08 at 10:12 PM, MartyfromMillinocket wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

MillinocketLisa.......it's 2008......where you been for the past 3 years,,,hiding under a rock?

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On 10/18/08 at 11:06 AM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

MAGIC Marty, I see that your distortion of current events is as questionable as Bruce’s pork-barrel taxpayer projects!

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