Power Plants

A Life Of Their Own

New magazines have started up, new conferences have emerged, and new money for new projects has been flowing around in the name of wood energy in recent years. We prefer to call it the “new generation” of wood energy. There are indeed younger people who believe wood-to-energy is a new concept. Why wouldn’t they?

A quick read of this issue’s cover story reveals otherwise. Xcel Energy’s Bay Front power plant on the south shore of Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay in Ashland, Wis. began using woody biomass almost 33 years ago. Since then, and especially in recent years the operation has reduced its coal consumption in favor of wood—19,000 tons of coal versus 253,000 tons of biomass last year in fact, as it generates up to 74 MW.

Bay Front’s operations history goes back much further. It was constructed in 1916 by Ashland Light & Power and the Street Railway Company, which consolidated into Lake Superior District Power (LSDP) in 1922. More boilers and generators came on line through the years and by 1960 the plant was equipped with five boilers and six turbine generators. Bay Front was acquired in 1983 by Northern States Power Company-Wisconsin as a result of a merger with LSDP.

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From Left: Dan Shell, Western Editor; David Abbott, Senior Associate Editor; David (DK) Knight, Co-Publisher/Executive Editor; Jennifer McCary, Senior Associate Editor; Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief

As for Northern States Power, its roots go back to 1881 when an engineering school dropout joined Thomas Edison as a draftsman to build a power plant in New York City. Henry Byllesby went on to design plants for Edison in Chile and Montreal, until in 1885 Edison’s rival George Westinghouse lured Byllesby away as vice president and general manager of Westinghouse Electric.

While at Westinghouse for several years, Byllesby invented and designed dozens of electric lighting devices, until he joined Thomson-Houston Electric Company, which sent him to St. Paul, Minn. to run a subsidiary. Byllesby spent four years there until Thomson-Houston merged with Edison’s General Electric Company. Apparently not wanting to cover old ground for Edison, Byllesby traveled to Oregon and became vice president of the Portland General Electric Company, where he designed and built hydroelectric projects.

He then started his own firm in Chicago in 1902 and with a partner and various backers bought struggling Midwestern utilities in Illinois, Ohio and Oklahoma. He also organized other power and utility holding companies and in 1912 purchased Minneapolis General Electric of Minnesota. In 1916 Byllesby changed his company’s name to Northern States Power Company, the same year that the Bay Front power plant was constructed in Ashland.

NSP proceeded to buy dozens of upper Midwest utility companies and upgrade these operations. The company managed to fend off competing electric cooperatives formed as a result of the New Deal, as well as government funding of community developed power operations. NSP boomed thereafter and became one of the top 10 utilities in the country.

 Fast forward to 1983, when Northern States Power-Wisconsin acquired the Bay Front plant as a result of a merger with LSDP.

Fast forward some more to 2000 when Northern States Power merged with Denver-based New Century Energies, creating Xcel Energy. Today Xcel Energy is a major U.S. electric and natural gas company with annual revenues of more than $10 billion. Based in Minneapolis, Xcel operates in eight states and provides a portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.4 million electricity customers and 1.9 million natural gas customers.

We wonder if Henry Byllesby ever thought obout putting woody biomass in the mix.