Verso acquiring Bucksport power plant
The Verso Paper Corp. is purchasing a controlling interest in Bucksport Energy LLC, a power-generation plant that sells most of its power to the Verso mill in Bucksport and the rest to the ISO New England power grid.
Along with Hydro-Quebec and GDF Suez, Verso has been a 28% co-owner of the 175-megawatt facility located on banks of the Penobscot River in Bucksport. According to the Ellsworth American, Verso spokesman Bill Cohen confirmed the company had reached an agreement with its partners to assume full ownership of the power plant.
Bucksport Energy LLC has sold both power and steam to the Verso mill in Bucksport, according to the company’s website.
The announcement comes on the heels of Verso’s decision to shut down its Bucksport mill temporarily in response to soft market demand for its paper and a spike in the cost of natural gas. In announcing that decision in mid-January, Cohen said the mill’s biomass boiler would continue to produce electricity during the shutdown.
Memphis-based Verso Paper Corp., which also owns another paper mill in Jay, announced earlier this month that it will purchase NewPage Holdings Inc. in a $1.4 billion deal. The companies, which together have three mills in Maine, will have combined sales of around $4.5 billion, based on 2012 figures, and 11 manufacturing facilities in six states.
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