SaskPower has received yet another recognition for its efforts to advance carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in the changing power generation landscape.聽
The Boundary Dam Power Station鈥檚 integrated CCS project has won聽Power Magazine鈥檚聽Power Plant of the Year Award. The CCS project opened to much fanfare late last year, with delegates from 20 countries in attendance, and has scooped up a number of awards since then.
Two months after the pilot plant opened, it was named the Project of the Year in the Coal Fired Project category from Power Engineering and Renewable Energy World Magazines.聽And just two months ago, it won the Edison Electric Institute鈥檚 Edison Award, the international electric industry鈥檚 top award.
The project has also been recognized by National Geographic as one of 10 energy breakthroughs in 2014.聽
Mike Monea, SaskPower鈥檚 president of carbon capture and storage initiatives, said he believes Boundary Dam was recognized by Power Magazine because it has received global attention with its engineering and 鈥渇irst of its kind鈥� status.
鈥淎bout two months ago, we were told that we were selected (for the Power Magazine award), and we were pretty pumped about it, actually,鈥� Monea told the Mercury.
There have been challenges for SaskPower since the CCS facility opened last year. They鈥檙e still working through some repairs.
鈥淎 lot of it鈥檚 piping and valving,鈥� Monea said. 鈥淚t looks like a submarine inside (the capture island). It鈥檚 just huge recycling tubing and piping that runs through the whole plant.鈥�
A planned shutdown will happen in September.聽
鈥淲e鈥檙e just making constant improvements on the whole facility,鈥� said Monea. 鈥淲e鈥檙e pretty pleased with where things are going, but there needs to be some ongoing improvements.
鈥淲hen you build something for the first time, some of our contractors don鈥檛 get it right the first time, because they鈥檝e never done it. Everybody鈥檚 trying to get the newest improvement that works together with the next piece of equipment, so it鈥檚 all coming together.鈥�
Once the September shutdown is finished, they will see what happens when the plant starts up again. Monea anticipates it will be in 鈥済reat working order鈥� at that time.
He hopes SaskPower can soon shift its attention to Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam. Monea said they are now into the business case for the project, and from there, it will be up to SaskPower鈥檚 president and board of directors, along with the provincial government, to make a decision.
As different teams finish their work at Unit 4, they鈥檒l be pulled off and then start to work on the new design of Units 4 and 5. They will also study the basic economics for the plant.
鈥淚n one year, I hope we will be in a good position to make recommendations to our planning section at SaskPower, and then our planning group wraps the whole overall corporate economics into our recommendations,鈥� said Monea. 鈥淲e really have to know by 2018. So we have a little bit of time to do a lot of detailed work here.鈥�
Monea said they haven鈥檛 been able to start into the detailed planning of Units 4 and 5, but on a per unit basis, it will be smaller and have a smaller footprint. Unit 3 has an output of 161 megawatts; though the combined output for Units 4 and 5 will be higher than 161 megawatts, Monea said the average output per unit will be lower.
鈥淲e believe that carbon capture and storage will have and play a significant role at SaskPower,鈥� said Monea. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just I鈥檓 not sure what that will look like for Units 4 and 5 yet. That鈥檚 what we have to look at for the next year.鈥�
