Montana firm to idle aluminum plant
John Stucke - Staff writer
The Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. in Montana announced an 11-month shutdown on Monday, joining other Northwest aluminum companies that are selling electricity rather than making metal.
The company reached a deal with the Bonneville Power Administration to close its potlines, which will pull about 90,000 metric tons of aluminum from the market and idle 585 workers beginning Friday.
The move, said company consultant Haley Beaudry, will free 165 megawatts of electricity to be sold into an energy-starved Western power market.
Last year, CFAC cut its production by half as power prices skyrocketed. To keep making aluminum, the company had relied solely on its 165-megawatt contract with BPA.
Now it will resell the BPA power, a decision that could earn the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, Beaudry said, the agreement ensures that any windfall will be spent on worker wages, invested in new energy sources and plant upgrades, and routed to BPA to offset rising costs to Northwest ratepayers.
BPA spokesman Ed Mosey called the agreement a good deal for the company and the people living in the Northwest.
"What they're doing here is the right thing," he said.
Steve Wright, BPA's acting administrator, added: "Given the power situation up and down the West Coast, this deal could not be more timely."
California communities are weathering rolling blackouts as the state attempts to fix a failed attempt to deregulate its electric industry during a time of surging demand and stagnant supply.
Meanwhile, negotiators from BPA and Kaiser Aluminum Corp. have yet to reach agreement on the resale of Kaiser's huge electricity load from smelters in Tacoma and Mead.
The company already sold its BPA electricity allotment for December and January, earning the company tens of millions of dollars. Its Mead smelter workers, laid off because of power sales, will be paid in full through the end of January. However, the resale of electricity for February through October hasn't been settled.
"Kaiser has a right to remarket that power, and they have a strong bargaining position," Mosey said.