FERC okays sale of small landfill gas power plant in Washington

September 18, 2015 Barry Cassell Generation

On Sept. 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a July 22 application from BioFuels Washington LLC (BFW) requesting authorization for the acquisition by LRI Renewable Energy LLC from BFW all of its assets and/or membership interests.

BFW stated that the transaction may not require commission approval, but out of an abundance of caution it sought that approval anyway. “This order authorizes the Proposed Transaction without making any determination of jurisdiction,” said the Sept. 18 FERC order.

BFW, a qualifying facility (QF) with market-based rate authority, owns a 4.5-MW landfill gas facility located in Pierce County, Washington. Output from the facility is sold under long-term contracts. The facility is situated within the Northwest Power Pool Area balancing authority area.

BFW is wholly owned by BFWE Owner LLC, which is equally owned by NECCIF Investment II Inc. (NECCIF) and BioFuels Energy LLC (BioFuels). NECCIF is wholly owned by New Energy Capital Clean Infrastructure Fund LP. BioFuels is owned by individuals.

LRI Renewable is a wholly owned subsidiary of EVENSOL, an Oregon-based company that designs, constructs, and operates biogas production and biogas-to-power plants. EVENSOL currently owns, through subsidiaries, three landfill gas facilities:

  • the 1.49 MW Athens-Clarke County Facility located in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia;

  • the 1.49 MW Johnston County Facility located in Johnston County, North Carolina; and

  • the 4.46 MW Rochelle Energy Center Facility located in Rochelle, Illinois.

Other than these three EVENSOL QFs, BioFuels states that neither LRI Renewable nor its upstream affiliates currently own or control any jurisdictional assets in the United States. The approved transaction involves a purchase and sale agreement between BFW and LRI Renewable. LRI Renewable will purchase from BFW all of its assets constituting the facility (or, in the alternative, BFW will cause all of its members to sell to LRI Renewable all of the membership interests in BFW). EVENSOL will then indirectly own and control the facility.

About Barry Cassell 20414 Articles
Barry Cassell is Chief Analyst for GenerationHub covering coal and emission controls issues, projects and policy. He has covered the coal and power generation industry for more than 24 years, beginning in November 2011 at GenerationHub and prior to that as editor of SNL Energy’s Coal Report. He was formerly with Coal Outlook for 15 years as the publication’s editor and contributing writer, and prior to that he was editor of Coal & Synfuels Technology and associate editor of The Energy Report. He has a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University.
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