The plants contributed to the growth of consumption, but they also make their contribution to the network, according to a report by SEG Ingeniería.
The pulp mills of UPM modified the energy panorama in the country and generated a 6.4% of the country’s electricity demand, according to a report by SEG Ingeniería, which shows that they consume the 28% of total energy nationwide.
The survey, which also collects data from the National Energy Balance, prepared by the National Energy Directorate, shows that the industrial sector was the main driver of the growth of energy consumption during the last decades, which passed from 21% to the current 42%.
In turn, it was highlighted that, so far this century, final energy consumption has increased by 89%, being the industrial sector responsible for the 67% of this variation. According to the report, from 2018 to 2022, the 6.4% of the country’s electricity demand was supplied by the two pulp mills.
It is that, in the production process, the pulp mills obtain substances with energy content. That transforms to UPM 2 in the fourth largest power plant in Uruguay, as they pointed out, since most of the energy used by the paper mills comes from biomass residues, mainly from eucalyptus plantations that are the raw material for the manufacture of cellulose.
From the survey it appears that the pulp industry represents today the 65% of the final energy consumption of the Uruguayan industry and the 28% of the country’s total demand, which reflects the impacts of the two pulp mills installed a few years ago: UPM Fray Bentos, in Black river; and Silver Mountains, in Shells in Cologne.
The importance of UPM 2 in power generation
To them is added UPM 2, in Peach, which began operating this year and will have a production capacity of 2.1 million tons of pulp per year once it reaches its operating regime. From SEG Ingeniería they pointed out that the installation of this plant expands 80% the injection capacity of the industry to the grid.
When it reaches full production, the three combined pulp mills will inject into the Uruguayan electrical system 270 megawatts, equivalent to the full capacity of solar generation that the country has
Source: Ambito
