Combined Heat & Power 101
The Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) recently partnered with the Arctic Energy Alliance (AEA) to produce 2025 Northwest Territories Biomass Week, a five-day event designed to help pellet producers, equipment manufacturers, installers, regulators, researchers, academia, governments and others to learn more about how biomass is transforming the way we think about energy, especially in Canada’s North.
More than 300 attendees participated in sessions that included the advantages of biomass, case studies, district heating, biomass supporting forest health, combined heat & power (CHP), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and biomass innovation.
The Northwest Territories is not part of North America’s electricity grid. Instead, this vast area operates on a remote electrical system using diesel fuel, hydro resources and natural gas. There is rising interest within the Northwest Territories to adopt biomass CHP, especially in remote communities, to get away from the high cost and GHG emissions associated with diesel. Also known as cogeneration, biomass CHP is the simultaneous generation of useful heat and electricity from a single plant using wood chips or pellets as the fuel source. Despite its promise, CHP has yet to make a meaningful impact in the Northwest Territories.
Broadly speaking, there are two categories of biomass CHP: combustion-based systems and gasification systems.