SaskPower has chosen Stantec to provide engineering consulting services during the design and construction of the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project.
Stantec will serve as SaskPower's primary consulting engineer on the $1.24 billion project, which will be among the first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facilities in the world when it begins operations in 2014.
Working closely with SaskPower engineers, the company will complete a significant amount of design work as well as ensuring work done by others is completed in accordance with engineering, construction and procurement contracts. Stantec's contract with SaskPower is worth approximately $30 million.
"We are proud to have one of the world's leading engineering firms involved in a project that will help build a greener future for Saskatchewan, Canada and the world," said Rob Norris, Minister responsible for SaskPower. "This is an important example of the public and private sectors working together to move Saskatchewan's innovation agenda forward."
"Stantec has the skill, experience and expertise to help ensure the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project is completed on time, on budget and within specifications," said Robert Watson, SaskPower president and CEO.
"We believe that sustainability is a key part of everyone's future," said Bob Gomes, Stantec president and CEO. "We have a long standing relationship with SaskPower and we look forward to working closely with the SaskPower team on this exciting project, which will produce the world's first commercial clean coal plant. We are also very pleased to announce today that we are establishing Regina as our global centre of excellence for clean coal."
Stantec, which provides consulting services in engineering, planning, environmental sciences and a number of other areas, has worked with SaskPower on clean coal technology since 2006. The company has established a Clean Coal Centre of Excellence in Regina, where it employs 70 people.
Stantec is one of several major firms involved in the Boundary Dam project, which will see Unit 3 at Boundary Dam Power Station rebuilt and equipped with a fully-integrated carbon capture system that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one million tonnes per year - the equivalent of taking more than 250,000 vehicles off Saskatchewan roads each year.
SaskPower approved the Boundary Dam project earlier this year and construction began in April. The new generating unit at Boundary Dam will have the capacity to produce 110 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Carbon dioxide (CO2) captured at Boundary Dam will be sold for enhanced oil recovery operations. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) will also be captured and sold to manufacturers of sulfuric acid.
Boundary Dam Power Station is SaskPower's largest generating facility, with six units and a combined generating capacity of 824 MW. The company's three coal-fired power plants account for approximately 50 percent of its generating capacity of 3,513 MW. SaskPower has a total available generating capacity of 3,982 MW when the production of independent power producers is taken into account.
