Honey Lake Power Plant Team Stands Ready To Support PG&E Customers In Lassen County Region

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The facility has been a critical resource of emergency power during wildfire season

July 5, 2022 – Employees at the Greenleaf Power Honey Lake Power (HLP) plant biomass facility are again prepared to support Lassen Municipal Utility District (LMUD) by providing electrical power to Lassen County residents and others in the area as PG&E works on the transmission line that services these communities.

“In response to the wildfires compromising PG&E’s electrical transmission lines in 2021, we are proud to have provided more than 60 consecutive days of power to Lassen County,” said Greg Cook, CEO of Greenleaf Power, the parent company of HLP. “Further, there were 91 total days in 2021 where HLP was the only source of electricity in the area, and already in 2022, we have provided power to residents for nearly 20 days.”

In addition to HLP providing electricity to Lassen County residents, the facility helps the State of California with its effort to prevent wildfires. HLP uses wood and wood waste (from designated High Fire Zones) that would otherwise serve as fuel in a wildfire. At least 80% of HLP’s fuel must come from forested regions that are sustainably managed. As California confronts another historic drought and record-breaking wildfires year after year, HLP is committed to being part of the solution by using High Fire Zone woody material to produce green and clean electricity.

“Fires have repeatedly impacted PG&E lines in our area throughout 2021 and we expect that 2022 will be no different,” said Matt Granderson, Plant Manager at HLP. “We stand ready to provide green and reliable electricity to our neighbors when PG&E lines are down and areas of Lassen County become ‘islands’ during fire season.”

During the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise, HLP was the only power generator available and supported LMUD’s customers for 21 days.

About Honey Lake Power
HLP is a biomass electrical generation facility located approximately 200 miles northeast of Sacramento in Northern California’s Lassen County and has been consistently providing renewable energy to the area since 1989. The plant employs 22 full-time staff and dozens of contractors during the spring and fall outage seasons.

HLP has converted an average of 150,000 tons per year of biomass into power and works closely and continuously with State, Federal and private forest managers to provide a use for hazardous dead trees that are being culled, thus protecting the remaining trees while reducing potential air pollutants, creating quality jobs, and providing a steady source of renewable energy.

About Greenleaf Power
Greenleaf Power LLC, headquartered in Sacramento, California, is a leading provider of renewable energy in North America that owns and operates 135 MW of dependable generation, fueled by sustainable biomass material. Greenleaf was formed as a portfolio company in October 2010 to acquire and operate baseload biomass power plants and improve those plants’ performance through implementation of fuel-supply risk mitigation, contract management, cost discipline, leveraging operating synergies, and applying best-in-class management and operations practices to extend the economic lives of the plants.

Greenleaf is also developing battery energy storage systems (BESS) and is exploring sites throughout the United States to implement this technology. Greenleaf directly employs more than 120 people and creates nearly 500 dedicated local jobs collecting, processing, and delivering fuel and consumables to its generating plants.

Submitted by Katherine Cole.