The environment depletion caused by the intensive use of fossil fuels to produce electricity to satisfy the increasing demands has motivated the searching of alternative energy sources. In this context, residual biomass from different crops has been considered as alternative. However, there are significant issues associated to this energy source, which are mainly related to the low density and high transportation costs. Therefore, in this paper is presented an optimization approach for the strategic planning for the use of waste biomass pellets in power plants for electric energy production. The proposed approach considers all the activities included in the supply chain since the collection of residues until the combustion of pellets in power plants. Particularly, the location and design of the pelleting plants in a macroscopic region, as well as the selection of biomass and transportation routes are considered to satisfy the needs of the power plants at the minimum cost and minimum environmental impact. A case study for the national case of Mexico is presented, where the results show that is possible to satisfy 50% of the national demand of the power plants through the use of residual biomass, and simultaneously the associated CO2 emissions can be reduced 25%. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.