SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project was in operation every day in January, according to a company update. On average, the plant has run only 56 percent of any month in the last year. “Our 100 [percent] online achievement for January allowed us to capture and sequester a record 84,976 tonnes of carbon dioxide. We continue to target the capture of 800,000 tonnes this year,” according to the company.
That targeted total of 800,000 tonnes of captured CO2 in 2016 would be a vast increase over the prior year’s capture totals, but is still below the plant’s initially advertised capacity of 1 million tonnes per year. “This was adjusted from our original target after we encountered and addressed some technical and mechanical issues in 2015,” SaskPower spokesman Jonathan Tremblay told GHG Daily by e-mail.
In 2014, the plant in Saskatchewan captured 115,000 tonnes of CO2 from October, when it was brought online, to the end of the year. In 2015, the facility captured 425,000 tonnes of CO2.
In January, the plant also boasted its highest daily CO2 capture rates of the last 12 months of operation, collecting 2,855 tonnes daily on average. That represented 85 percent of the plant’s maximum capture capacity. In 2015, the daily average capture rate was 1,739 tonnes per day, with average performance at 35.2 percent of the plant’s max capacity.
The carbon capture facility was taken offline for a few days early this month for a planned inspection and cleaning. More details on the downtime and what work was done will be released early next month, Tremblay said. Of course, the downtime means the plant likely won’t reach the number it did in January. “In some months, routine maintenance and inspection is planned, and in other months such as January, the facility can be operated 100 [percent] of the time. Over a year, we expect the facility to be up and running approximately 85 [percent] of the time,” according to the update.
While mechanically the plant seems to be running better than ever, politically, SaskPower, which is the crown utility, continues to run into problems. The province’s New Democratic Party, which has been cold to the development of CCS, has been up in arms for several months about the project, SaskPower, and the conservative Saskatchewan (Sask.) Party. The Sask. Party, the current party in power, has not been forthcoming about the performance of the plant, according to the NDP.
The plant was advertised as a great success in the first year of its performance while in reality it was riddled with costly mechanical issues and was unable to reach full capacity, NDP lawmaker Cathy Sproule has asserted. “The carbon capture mess involves huge financial losses for Saskatchewan, and a troubling lack of transparency. We have to get to the bottom of it, and talk about where Saskatchewan should go from here,” Sproule said in a press release.
Saskatchewan paid at least $17 million (CAD) in repair costs for the plant and lost $7 million (CAD) in penalties for failing to capture enough carbon in 2015 to meet contractual obligations with oil company Cenovus, the CO2 off-taker, according to the NDP.
Most recently, the opposition party accused the Sask. Party of refusing to provide documents promised during a Jan. 5 meeting of the legislative Standing Committee on Crown and Central Agencies.
The requested documents and information are: copies of multiple letters sent under SaskPower CEO Mike Marsh’s signature regarding Boundary Dam 3; information regarding Boundary Dam 3 provided to an industry newsletter; description of any changes to promotional materials regarding Boundary Dam 3; total spending on marketing for 2012, 2013, and 2014; travel expenses; parasitic load information; targets related to the CO2 Aquistore project that Boundary Dam will feed CO2 into; background information regarding emissions intensity calculations; possible retrofits of Boundary Dam Units 4 and 5 with CCS systems; consultant and contractor costs associated with Boundary Dam 3’s construction; and overtime paid related to carbon capture.
A meeting of the Standing Committee on Crown and Central Agencies has been set for Feb. 23 and the requested information will be provided to the NDP prior to that time, a representative from the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy told GHG Daily.
