Mt. Poso Biomass Cogeneration

Mt. Poso Cogeneration Company Biomass Conversion

Location: The Mt. Poso Cogeneration Company (MPCC) facility is located at 36157 Famoso Road, approximately 15 miles north of Bakersfield, California in the Mt. Poso Oilfield. This location is remote from residences and the communities of Kern County.

Conversion to Renewable Biomass: The MPCC facility, managed by Kern County-based Millennium Energy, LLC, has been operating as a coal-fired base load 49.5 megawatt (MW) cogeneration facility since 1989. Due to recent California policy initiatives requiring Investor Owned Utilities like PG&E to achieve 20% of its power needs utilizing renewable energy sources by 2010, Millennium Energy LLC is re-tooling MPCC to utilize a renewable fuel – woody biomass. Currently the facility utilizes a blend of coal, petroleum coke and tire derived fuel (TDF). Complete (100%) firing of the Mt. Poso facility with woody biomass fuel will allow base load generation (24/7 delivery) of approximately 44MW to be delivered to the California electrical power grid as renewable power. MPCC is committed to operate as a renewable energy power cogeneration facility on a long-term basis using the best available control technologies to minimize air emissions, using no potable water (water supply comes from the Mt. Poso oil field), and zero discharge of solid and liquid wastes (power plant water is recycled).

Biomass Fuel: Primary biomass fuel sources will include: agricultural waste in the form of orchard removals, orchard prunings, shells, and pits; and urban wood waste including tree trimmings, woody construction waste, pallets, and clean demolition wood from county and municipalities’ recycling programs.

Benefits to the Greater Bakersfield Area: Conversion of the MPCC facility to renewable biomass fuels will result in numerous societal benefits including:

Improved Air Quality: Diversion of woody biomass that would have been burned in the open will be subject to controlled combustion and use of emissions control equipment at the MPCC facility resulting in improved air quality.
Renewable Power Generation: The MPCC facility will generate renewable power.
Local Jobs: New, family wage jobs will be created as a direct result of this project. Most of the new jobs will be associated with fuels collection, processing and transport activities.
Carbon Beneficial: As the use of woody biomass to produce energy is considered “carbon neutral”, any offsetting of fossil fuel use in a power plant by biomass use will result in accompanying reduction in greenhouse gases. Additionally, combustion of woody biomass that otherwise might end up in landfills or left in place to decay results in the release of methane gas which is considered to be one of the major contributors to climate change.
Cogeneration Efficiency: The term cogeneration means that one fuel source – woody biomass, is utilized to create two forms of energy – in this case power and steam, thus increasing the efficient use of the biomass. The steam is utilized in thermally enhanced oil recovery operations in the nearby Mt. Poso oilfield.
Contribution to Tax Base: A re-powered MPCC facility will continue to contribute it’s fair share of tax revenue to local, county, state and federal coffers.