For a facility that has seen controversy for its teething problems, the month of March was as good as it could possibly get for up-time.
SaskPower鈥檚 monthly update on the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project reported the CCS facility at Boundary Dam Power Station was online 100 per cent of the time and captured 56,421 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Out of the last 12 months, BD3 has had 100 per cent time online for six of those months, the most recent being October 2016.
鈥淪ince inception, this facility has captured almost 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to the gas emissions of over 350,000 vehicles or over 300,000 Canadian coast to coast road trips,鈥� the report of April 5 stated.
鈥淪askPower continues to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as it gains experience operating the facility. In the month of April, the installation of an activated carbon treatment full scale test, and the resumption of contracted amine thermal reclamation will address performance bottlenecks related to foaming and degradation. Optimizing the cost-effective maintenance of the amine solution will remain the focus in the coming months, and will result in continued reduced CO2 capture rate up to the planned outage. The planned outage in June 2017, the first major outage since October 2015, will address normal maintenance issues as well as a number of modifications that will increase the operational efficiency and reliability of the plant.鈥�
The daily average of CO2 captured has slowly declined since November 2016. The daily average of CO2 captured peaked at 2,039 tonnes. That amount is roughly flat compared to February. The twelve-month average is 2,354 tonnes per day.
SaskPower noted the CCS facility is the cleanest fossil fuel power unit in all of Canada and is an essential part of the Crown corporation鈥檚 mission to reducing its impact on the environment.
SaskPower will also manage its emissions through renewables. SaskPower plans to significantly increase the amount of renewable electricity in Saskatchewan鈥檚 generation mix from 25 per cent today to as must as 50 per cent by 2030. This will reduce SaskPower鈥檚 greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 40 per cent from the 2005 levels.
