Boundary Dam Power Station
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Boundary Dam Power Station is the largest coal fired station owned by
SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government, it serves more than 538,000 customers and manages over $11.8 billion in assets. Sa ...
, located near
Estevan Estevan is the eighth-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is approximately north of the Canada–United States border. The Souris River runs by the city. This city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Estevan No. 5. History The ...
,
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
, Canada.


Description

The Boundary Dam Power Station consists of two 62 net MW units (commissioned in 1959, shut down and decommissioned in 2014); two 139 net MW units (commissioned in 1970), one of which—Unit 3—was decommissioned and replaced with a new 160 MW unit in 2013; one 139 net MW unit (commissioned in 1973); and one 273 net MW unit (commissioned in 1978). The boilers are supplied by
Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
and
Combustion Engineering Combustion Engineering (C-E) was a multi-national American-based engineering firm that developed nuclear steam supply power systems in the United States. Originally headquartered in New York City, C-E moved its corporate offices to Stamford, Connec ...
while the turbines/generator are supplied by
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
and
Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
. There is also
Boundary Dam Boundary Dam is a concrete arch gravity-type hydroelectric dam, finished in 1967, on the Pend Oreille River, in the U.S. state of Washington. The dam is located in the northeast corner of Washington state. It is operated by Seattle City Light an ...
(constructed in 1957) located next to the station. It is an earth fill dam, which created the
Boundary Dam Reservoir Boundary Dam Reservoir is a man-made lake in the south-east corner of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is in census division 1, in the RM of Estevan. The closest city is Estevan, which is 5.5 kilometres downstream. There are no tow ...
on Long Creek a few kilometres west of the river's mouth on the
Souris River The Souris River (; french: rivière Souris) or Mouse River (as it is alternatively known in the U.S., a calque of its French name) is a river in central North America. It is about in length and drains about . It rises in the Yellow Grass Mars ...
. The station uses water from the
reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
for
coolant A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corrosio ...
, which is why Boundary Reservoir is the only body of water in Saskatchewan that doesn't freeze over during the winter months and supports largemouth bass. The plant has five 300 ft (91.44 m) tall smokestacks. SaskPower has advised that the project has a 30-year life.


Carbon capture and storage demonstration project

The Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration is a project to retrofit the
lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
-fired Unit #3 with a
carbon capture Carbon capture may refer to: * Carbon capture and utilization, where the captured carbon dioxide is used * Carbon sequestration, where the captured carbon dioxide is stored ** Carbon capture and storage, referring to carbon sequestration from point ...
system. It consists of two distinct parts: Repowering of the existing Unit #3 and the installation of the
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
,
sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
and
NOx In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution. These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tropos ...
capture facility. Its primary purpose is to provide a low-cost source of carbon dioxide, to the mature
Weyburn Oil Field Weyburn is the eleventh-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. The city has a population of 10,870. It is on the Souris River southeast of the provincial capital of Regina and is north from the North Dakota border in the United States. The n ...
, for enhanced oil recovery. It is expected to result in a 90 percent (1 million tonnes/year) reduction in CO2 emissions and will also reduce the output of Unit 3 from 139 MW to 110 MW. Critics point out that the 90% figure refers to the percentage of total CO2 emissions captured, and that only about a half of this CO2 will actually be permanently stored. The remainder is released into the atmosphere during capturing and processing in the oil field. The retrofitted unit was officially opened in October 2014, and is the world's first commercial-scale,
lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
-fired power plant equipped with carbon capture and storage technology In 2015, internal documents from SaskPower revealed that there were "serious design issues" in the carbon capture system, resulting in regular breakdowns and maintenance problems that led the unit to only be operational 40% of the time. SNC-Lavalin had been contracted to engineer, procure, and build the facility, and the documents asserted that it "has neither the will or the ability to fix some of these fundamental flaws." The low productivity of the plant had in turn meant that SaskPower was only able to sell half of the 800,000 tonnes of captured carbon dioxide that it had contracted to sell to
Cenovus Energy Cenovus Energy Inc. (pronounced se-nō-vus) is an integrated oil and natural gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Cenovus was formed in 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies, with Cenovus becoming focused on oi ...
for use in
enhanced oil recovery Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated EOR), also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. EOR can extract 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil, compared to 20% to 40% using ...
at a cost of $25 per tonne. In addition to the lost sales, this meant that SaskPower had been forced to pay Cenovus $12 million in penalties. In June 2016, and to avoid paying a $91-million penalty, SaskPower renegotiated its CO2 supply contract with Cenovus. That renegotiation means annual revenues are reduced from $25 million to "$16-17 million". Over the 30-year project life this represents reduced revenue of $240 million to $270 million and will further weaken the project economics. Cenovus sold its Saskatchewan interests in 2017 to Whitecap Resources. Several major publications have noted what they deem poor economics of the project, among them ''The Economist'', ''The Financial Times'', ''The MIT Technology Review'', and ''The New York Times''. An April 2016 Parliamentary Budget Office report found that CCS at Boundary Dam doubles the price of electricity. Financial concerns appear to fall into three main areas: * negative
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced , , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, stat ...
, in part due to the pioneering nature of the project;. * the existence of cheaper alternatives, such as wind turbines, which urgently need to be developed. * the potential for substantial losses for initial investors (Saskatchewan taxpayers and SaskPower ratepayers), in excess of $1 billion Among environmental concerns, critics note that while 90% of CO2 smokestack emissions are captured, only a portion is stored. Almost half of captured emissions end up being released in the atmosphere by processing in the oil field and the capturing process. Among other concerns, critics point to the following: * The foremost goal of the CCS project is to keep the aging plant from becoming a
stranded asset Stranded assets are "assets that have suffered from unanticipated or premature write-downs, devaluations or conversion to liabilities". Stranded assets can be caused by a variety of factors and are a phenomenon inherent in the 'creative destructi ...
. * The unfair sharing of the costs, risks and benefits: Energy consumers are said to be saddled with a "very expensive
carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more sev ...
", while Saskatchewan's aging oil industry, namely Weyburn Consortium (formerly headed by Cenovus Energy), which owned the Weyburn oil field until it was sold in 2017 receives a "backdoor subsidy." All of these concerns are compounded by a lack of transparency: As of 2015 the project operators had not presented any financial or environmental performance numbers. In July 2018, SaskPower announced that it would not retrofit Units 4 and 5 with CCS, with minister responsible
Dustin Duncan Dustin Duncan is a Canadian provincial politician. He is the Saskatchewan Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for the constituency of Weyburn-Big Muddy. Elected in the June 2006 byelection at the age of 26, Dustin was name ...
saying that the units were approaching their mandated shut down in 2024 and that natural gas is a cheaper option.


Capital cost

In February 2008 the
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
government announced that it would proceed with a 7-year reconstruction and repowering of Boundary Dam's Unit 3. The initial project cost was C$1.24 billion out of which C$240-million was from the federal government. Budget over-runs have led to the plant having a total cost of some $C 1.5 billion.


Revenue

Other than the generation of electricity, the plant will have several by-products which will generate revenue.


Carbon dioxide

The facility will capture 90 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions from Unit 3SaskPower Boundary Dam Project
Carbon Capture Journal. July–August 2010
or one million
tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...
annually. Most of the total annual carbon dioxide capture volume, at least for the first ten years of the project, was sold to Alberta-based Cenovus Energy, the operator of the Weyburn Oil Field. SaskPower has not publicly disclosed the sale price but Minister Boyd has stated that it is "in the range of" $25 per tonne. Annual revenue from carbon dioxide sales is thus estimated at $25 million.
Cenovus Energy Cenovus Energy Inc. (pronounced se-nō-vus) is an integrated oil and natural gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Cenovus was formed in 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies, with Cenovus becoming focused on oi ...
used the carbon dioxide mainly for field injection work to increase
crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...
production before its Saskatchewan operations were sold to Whitecap Resources.


Sulfuric acid

Most of the
sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
emissions from the power station (predominantly
sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
) will be captured, converted to
sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
and sold. SaskPower sulphur dioxide emissions are approximately 5 tonnes per gigawatt hour of system generation. Given annual electricity generation of 1,010 gigawatt hours, it follows that total annual sulfur capture will be 5,050 tonnes.


Fly ash

Fly ash Fly ash, flue ash, coal ash, or pulverised fuel ash (in the UK) plurale tantum: coal combustion residuals (CCRs)is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates (fine particles of burned fuel) that are driven out of coal-fired ...
, also known as flue ash, is one of the residues generated following the combustion of coal and lignite. In the past it was released into the atmosphere through the smoke stack but pollution control requirements have put an end to that practice. It is now captured by electrostatic precipitators and stored at the point of generation, placed in landfills or recycled - where it will typically replace
Portland Cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...
in
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
production. Typical fly ash recovery rates, for Saskatchewan lignite-fired power stations, are 31 kilograms per megawatt hour. Fly ash, depending on its use, can attract a range of prices. The best arises from concrete-quality ash which fetches $22–$49 per tonne.


Expenses

There appear to be two main expense items: Operations and maintenance, and
parasitic load Parasitic load is a term used with regard to electrical appliances, railway locomotives and internal combustion engines. With regard to electrical appliances, it represents the power consumed even when the appliance is shut off, that is standby p ...
. In the latter, carbon and sulfur dioxide
amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia (), wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituen ...
-based capture units, such as the one at Boundary Dam, consume significant amounts of electricity and heat in operation and the largest single component is associated with solvent regeneration.Cansolv CO2 Capture: The Value of Integration
" Devin Shaw. Cansolv Technologies Inc. Oct-2008. Shell website
Significant electrical load is also used to run additional emission control components (e.g.
NOx In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution. These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tropos ...
and
mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...
capture) as well as associated pumps and other equipment.


See also

*
Coal mining in Saskatchewan Coal has been Coal mining, mined in Saskatchewan ever since the 1850s when it was used as a source of heat for the early Pioneers in the treeless Great Plains. Today, coal is still mined in Saskatchewan, but it is primarily used to Coal-fired powe ...
*
Shand Power Station Shand Power Station is a coal fired station owned by SaskPower in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, near the city of Estevan. Description The Shand Power Station consists of: *one 279 net MW unit (commissioned in 1992) *advanced env ...


References

{{reflist


External links


SaskPower Station Description
Coal-fired power stations in Saskatchewan Estevan No. 5, Saskatchewan SaskPower Carbon capture and storage