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The Pellet Fuels Institute offers myriad services for all segments of the pellet-fuel industry: manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and consumers.
BY CAROL DAUS
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| Bruce Lisle PFI President |
In just a little over 10 years, the Pellet Fuels Institute has become a major force in the pellet-fuel industry, offering government relations, communications services and general advocacy to its membership. In fact, PFI’s effort to bring awareness to this relatively new field is one of the reasons that the pellet-fuel industry has been so successful in recent years.
With 64 fuel members (representing more than 90 percent of the industry’s capacity in North America) and about 50 other supplier and associate members, PFI is a well-organized group that offers a wide range of services. Originally headquartered in Minneapolis, PFI was formed in the early 1990s when two organizations merged: the Fiber Fuels Institute and the Association of Pellet Fuel Industries. After some PFI board members proposed to Carter Keithley, former president of the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, that the two organizations share resources, PFI became affiliated with HPBA and relocated to Arlington, Va., in 1996.
PFI has grown at an impressive rate. Manufacturer membership increased from 38 companies to 60 companies last year, and supplier membership rose from 20 to 31. Furthermore, PFI’s annual conference last summer experienced record attendance, with 169 attendees.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
One of the keys to PFI’s success is its cross-representation of fuel manufacturers, appliance manufacturers, retailers and industry suppliers. Bruce Lisle, who has served as PFI’s president for the past three years, says, “This diversity within our membership is one of our major strengths.” Lisle is founder, president and CEO of Energex in Mifflintown, Pa.
Over the years, PFI’s board of directors has been extremely responsive to its membership, developing programs that have led to the increased visibility of pellet fuel and improvements in governmental relations. In the mid-1990s, when the pellet-fuel industry was in the doldrums, Barb Shine (who was PFI’s president at that time) spearheaded an enormous marketing and public-relations campaign to create awareness of the pellet-fuel category among both retailers and consumers. “She was largely responsible for creating the collective marketing program that the PFI still uses today,” Lisle says. “Before PFI took on this marketing program, the hearth industry was totally focused on gas, but after this exposure, demand for pellet fuel increased, and it has stayed high.”
When Lisle became president of PFI, one of his first goals was to create a strong governmental-relations program. Therefore, a government-affairs committee was formed under the leadership of Steve Walker, founder, owner and president of New England Wood Pellet Co., Jaffrey, NH. This group’s efforts contributed to the creation of the Renewable Energy Security Act, which was signed into law in August 2005. “Unfortunately, because of the way Congress works, this expenditure of $1 billion in consumer rebates still needs to get appropriated in order to be operational, but we’re working hard to accomplish this,” Lisle says. In fact, at PFI’s recent board meeting in Chicago, the group voted to implement the largest government-affairs program in PFI’s history. “Given the change in the control of Congress, we believe we have a window of opportunity, since there are many new members of Congress who are strong supporters of renewable energy,” Lisle says.
RESPONSIVE TO THE INDUSTRY
Responding to the needs of the marketplace, PFI, during the past few years, has been working to establish standards for various grades of fuel for residential and commercial use. Lisle explains that PFI’s development of these standards will allow consumers to look at a bag of fuel and the label on a stove and know whether the two are compatible. The importance of PFI’s work in this area is linked to the need to establish standards for lower grades of pellet fuel with higher ash content. “Marketing these lower grades is where the industry is going,” Lisle stresses. “We’re already seeing new technology incorporated into stoves that adjusts specific burn parameters based on what fuel is being used.”
The unprecedented demand for pellet fuel in 2005 and early 2006 that was brought on by Hurricane Katrina’s effects on fuel supplies caught the pellet-fuel industry by surprise, and PFI has subsequently been hard at work forecasting this season’s supply and demand. PFI conducts quarterly field surveys of its members to obtain up-to-date information on production and deliveries. The industry is expected to produce roughly 1.6 million tons of pellets for the 2006-2007 heating season, compared with 1.14 million in 2005-2006 and 1.03 million in the 2004-2005 season.
“We’re definitely growing, and much of this is from increased production from existing plants,” Lisle says. “Right now, I’d say that this increased production from existing plants and from some new operators will satisfy this season’s demand.”
According to Lisle, one of PFI’s responsibilities as a trade group is to provide supply-and-demand information to members and stakeholders. “We can’t manage supply and demand, but we can provide information that affects supply,” he says. For example, PFI publishes reports on fuel shipments and appliance sales to assist members in projecting what demand will be for specific regions of the country.
LOOKING AHEAD
Lisle feels strongly that pellet fuel has a bright future, particularly in light of rising fossil-fuel prices. Furthermore, a future application in North America that shows enormous potential is centralized heating. The United States has particularly lagged behind other countries in developing this technology. As an example, Lisle cites Austria, which sells more pellet fuel for centralized heating than all of North America. Things are changing in the United States, however, as increasing numbers of domestic manufacturers are developing appliances for centralized heating. “At HPBExpo two years ago, all the outdoor boilers were burning wood,” Lisle says. “At last year’s Expo, they were all burning wood pellets and corn.”
According to Lisle, since pellet fuel is a renewable fuel, it will grow in importance in the United States as the public looks for alternatives to fossil fuel. “It’s local, it’s indigenous, it’s clean and it reduces our dependence on imported oil,” he says. As the pellet-fuel category continues to see its market share increase, PFI will play a valuable role in ensuring that the needs of the pellet industry, including pellet mills, pellet-appliance manufacturers and industry suppliers, are constantly being met.
PHPR January/February 2007
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