Project Heat Assets

Burlington, NJ; Franklin, MA; City of Industry, CA

Role

Own, Operate and Maintain

Completion

CHP Plants with total capacity of 7.5 MW

Project Heat – a portfolio of three CHP plants jointly owned by Basalt Infrastructure Partners (Basalt) and DCO Energy, LLC (DCO) – was acquired in September 2017. Together, these three (3) site specific CHP plants in Burlington, NJ, Franklin, MA, and City of Industry, CA have a total capacity of 7.5 MW. These assets have a strong track record, having been professionally developed, operated and maintained.

Independent operating sites include:

Burlington – dry wall manufacturing facility (for National Gypsum Company)
Franklin – dairy production facility (Garelick Farms)
City of Industry – dairy product manufacturing facility (Danone Foods)

BURLINGTON, NJ

The site host for this facility is National Gypsum Company (NGC). NGC is a privately held company and produces wall board at this facility for the residential housing market. A 20-year contract was executed to supply the electric and thermal energy needs of its manufacturing operations. Commercial operations start date of September 2012.

The project provides net generation of 100% of NGC’s power needs (~2 MW). The facility is also a Qualifying Facility (QF) allowing the plant to sell excess capacity to PJM at PSEG’s real time zonal LMP. The project provides up to 170,000 MMBtu to the National Gypsum board dryers.

This CHP plant consists of a one (1) Solar Centaur 40 SoLo NOx– 3.5 MW (2012 vintage, major overhaul in 2016) gas turbine, which provides thermal energy directly into the kiln of the facility. Approximately 20 to 26 MMBtu/hour of thermal energy is provided to the kiln.

FRANKLIN, MA

The site host for this facility is Garelick Farms, which is a subsidiary of Dean Foods, a publicly traded company. The site is one of the largest dairies in the northeastern U.S., focusing on the production of dairy milk. A 15-year Cogeneration Energy Purchase Agreement was executed to supply thermal energy and electricity to its manufacturing needs. The initial Commercial Operations Date was February 16, 2013.

Under the contract, Garelick Farms agrees to purchase up to 95% of the facility’s electrical and thermal energy, up to the maximum capacity of the plant (2.0 MW and 6.5 MMBtu/hr, respectively). In return, the plant agrees to sell to host up to 95% of the facility’s requirements for electrical and thermal energy.

The CHP equipment for the site consists of one (1) GE Jenbacher 616 reciprocating engine at 2.006 MW (1999 vintage). The project also has a Cain HRSG which produces steam which is sent to a number of steam to hot water heat exchangers for the manufacturing process.

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA

The site host for this facility is Danone Foods, originally Whitewave before Danone’s acquisition of Whitewave in April 2017. The site is:

Located 20 miles outside of Los Angeles, produces 50 million gallons of organic and conventional dairy products annually.
The facility receives 40-60 trucks of milk/week; the facility can collectively hold 250,000 gallons of milk in various silos;
Milk is then pasteurized and standardized to a predetermined fat content level (skim, 1%, 2%, whole).
The facility is 315,000 square feet and employs 285 people, of whom 240 are unionized.

The CHP equipment for the site consists of one (1) GE Jenbacher 616 reciprocating engine at 2.006 MW (1999 vintage). The project also has a Cain HRSG which produces steam for the manufacturing process.