What Covanta Needed:
Covanta sought cost and efficiency improvements in delivered feedstock fuel for its eight biomass energy facilities in California and Maine.
Our Role:
Recommend strategic improvements and provide long-term fuel management oversight to lower costs and increase efficiency for each plant.
What We Did:
- Assessed options for diversifying biomass types and sources to optimize “fuel-mix” and efficiencies
- Recommended and commenced implementation of supply contracts (meeting up to 40 percent of demand)
- Assisted procurement staff in managing inventory and mitigating fuel-related shut-downs
Recommended strategies to improve consistency and reliability of delivered feedstock fuels - Managed fuel inventories to eliminate shortage-driven shut-downs
- Expanded and enhanced relationships with suppliers
Results:
Summit provided insights on the complexities of Covanta’s fuel-supply dynamics and the associated vulnerabilities and provided a strategy for addressing them.
- Unplanned fuel-related shutdowns were dramatically reduced
- Fuel suppliers’ pricing leverage was curtailed or eliminated
- Fuel inventory management became more predictable and efficient
- Generation inefficiencies and margin compression were improved