The carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at SaskPower鈥檚 Boundary Dam Power station continued to operate efficiently in March.
The facility online every day last month, and was available 99.7 per cent of the time, according to the monthly report released on Tuesday. A minor electrical fault caused a short, two-hour outage. It鈥檚 the only outage experienced at the facility in the first three months of the year.
In the previous 12 months, the CCS facility has been online for 66 per cent of the time, although that number is affected by a three-month shutdown from June to August 2017.
The facility generated more than 120 megawatts of power for the third consecutive month as well, surpassing the 12-month average of 105 megawatts.
The CCS facility reached a significant milestone last month, surpassing two million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) captured since start-up in October 2014. SaskPower announced the milestone as part of February鈥檚 report, even though it occurred in early March.
The CCS facility captured 79,185 tonnes of CO2 in March, which represents 79 per cent of its maximum capacity. The 12-month average is 49,683 tonnes.
The amount of CO2 captured at the facility peaked at 2,730 tonnes last month.
More than 230,000 tonnes have been captured so far this year.
鈥淭he ongoing reliability of plant equipment has allowed the CCS facility to stay online longer with fewer interruptions,鈥� SaskPower stated in the report. 鈥淭he facility also continues to benefit from upgrades installed in the summer of 2017.鈥�
A planned outage is scheduled for the first week in May to assess and clean equipment following this significant production run.
