Fire halts biomass operations at Dong’s Avedore plant

The fire, which started on 12 August, started in the electrical conveyor system but quickly spread to the wood pellet silos.

Dong told Argus that it is unclear how long it will take before biomass operations can resume but said the plant is unaffected by the fire and the multi-fuel plant has now switched to gas-fired generation.

“We do not know what caused the fire,”

Dong said.
“But the fire has nothing to do with the power plant. We're trying to mitigate the situation but we can't discharge any pellets or consume any pellets just now.”

Dong has contacted its suppliers but will still have to make a decision about what course of action to take with regards to the biomass operations.

“It's a very serious situation but the most important point is that we secure the situation and make it safe,” Dong added.

“It's still too early to say what we will do. But it looks like we may have to rebuild the conveyor system and that could take months so we will have to try and establish a new way to discharge pellets. But we definitely won't be able to bring any pellets in this week or next.”

Dong plans to convert three of its power plants in Denmark to 100pc biomass within the next five years. The utility burns around 600,000 t/yr of wood pellets and 500,000 t/yr of straw in its Danish power plants. The Avedore plant, which is one of the planned conversions, utilizes biomass in its second unit.

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