Scheduled maintenance and a surprise electrical failure resulted in a rough August for SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project in Saskatchewan, Canada. BD3 was offline for several days early in the month due to a minor electrical failure. “This is not unusual for power units, but it did impact monthly capture totals,” according to an update from the utility.
Later in the month, the unit was brought offline for planned maintenance, which ended up being more extensive than anticipated. “As a result, the outage lasted approximately ten days,” the update says. The plant is not due for maintenance this month.
The facility operated 52 percent of the hours in August, the first month of 2016 in which it fell below its 12-month average of 66 percent. The plant has not performed less than 66 percent of the time in any month since October 2015, when it was taken offline for extensive maintenance.
SaskPower captured 38,679 metric tons of carbon dioxide in August while operating at 39 percent of maximum capacity. The daily average of CO2 captured at BD3 in August peaked at 2,645 metric tons. Since the plant began operations in October 2014, it has captured 1.067 million metric tons of CO2.
Under an off-take agreement with Cenovus, SaskPower is to provide 800,000 metric tons of CO2 annually. The captured CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery. Thus far, the plant has captured 527,000 metric tons of CO2 in 2016. “SaskPower is on track to capture 800,000 tonnes in 2016, and continues to meet emission regulations and the needs of its off-taker. Boundary Dam Unit 3 is currently the cleanest fossil fuel power unit in the country,” the update says.
