Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Steel Reef COO Austin Voss, left, show Energy and Resources Minister Colleen Young the 16 megawatt turbine now in operation at their Viewfield Gas Plant 4. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
STOUGHTON – Energy and Resources Minister Colleen Young had the opportunity to check out Steel Reef’s move into the power generation world, touring the company’s Viewfield Plant 4 facility on Sept. 4.
Steel Reef is in the process of adding 125 megawatts of power generation capacity to the Saskatchewan grid at its facilities. So far it is “behind the fence,” and providing power to their own facilities, but in coming years it is expected to be tied into the grid and providing power for SaskPower and its customers. Of those 125 megawatts, roughly 100 megawatts would go to SaskPower, with the remaining 25 megawatts to be used at Steel Reef’s gas plant facilities.
Steel Reef will install these additional turbines and electrical substations at its facilities in Coleville, North Portal, Saskatchewan Ethane Extraction Plant (SEEP), Steelman and Viewfield.
Steel Reef Chief Operating Officer Austin Voss accompanied the minister on the tour. He spoke to Pipeline Online by phone on Sept. 11.
“We have installed or are currently building, power generators that use the processed flare gas at Steelman, Viewfield and SEEP (Saskatchewan Ethane Extraction Plant).
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The setup is a “cogeneration” system. As it creates electricity, the gas-fired turbine (connected to a generator) creates heat via its exhaust. The heat recovery from its exhaust is used for process heat within the gas plant.
Voss explained, “We use the waste heat from the turbine is used to heat the heat-medium in the gas plant, which then reduces our fuel usage for the gas plant itself.”
This is the generator portion of the power generation unit at the Viewfield plant. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Until they are tied into the SaskPower grid such that they can feed power into the grid, the turbine and generator are running at a reduced capacity. Voss said, “There’s still some remaining capacity on the existing turbines, and we’re also installing additional turbines. These will be connected to the grid once construction is complete and SaskPower has built the necessary infrastructure needed.”
Voss explained, “Waste recovery is not a new technology. The thing about a turbine is that it’s a very compact way of generating power, and it generates a very hot exhaust, and there’s still a lot of usable energy in that hot exhaust.
“What you would hear as a combined cycle gas power plant takes that heat, generates steam, and generates more power. What we’re doing is much simpler and easier to integrate into a gas plant. We’re capturing heat from the turbine’s exhaust and using it in our existing heat medium system, which supplies process heat. This replaces natural gas-fired boilers with the heat recovered directly from the exhaust.”
The dark piece in the middle is the heat recovery system on the exhaust of the gas-fired turbine. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Since the heat and electricity created as a result are a necessary part of an industrial process, cogeneration power generation is generally considered an always-on baseload form of power. In Alberta, of the ten classes of power generation listed by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), cogeneration has both the highest maximum capacity and is also one of the most consistent forms of generation. Cogeneration generally produces roughly a third or more of Alberta’s power at any given time.
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Is it gas that would otherwise be flared?
There’s a lot of discussion about using flare gas for power generation. But it’s more nuanced than that. There are no targeted natural gas wells in southeast Saskatchewan – wells that were drilled for natural gas production alone. That means the gas that is collected in the region, including at Viewfield, is all associated gas that is produced as a byproduct of oil production. If it was not collected and processed, it would otherwise be flared. But the expansion of gas collection and processing infrastructure means that most of the gas in the region is not flared.
Voss provided a more detailed explanation, saying, “ “Just to clarify— our gas plants primarily process flare gas. That said, the gas we’re using was already being captured before we installed the turbines.”
“So if you wanted to turn flare gas to power, you basically need a gas plant, because a turbine at any scale does not behave very well with liquids-rich sour gas, and you just couldn’t use it. So you need the gas plant in there to get rid of the water and the liquids and the H2S.
“And I think the other thing to remember here is that we’re putting these turbines as close to the flares as you can so it reduces transport of the gas.”
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Energy minister
Minister Young told Pipeline Online on Sept. 4, “It is my first gas plant. So it is an interesting process. And once again, like I said, it’s a chemical experiment on the go. And you know, watching, you know how they are able to bring in oil product from the surrounding wells that are here, and then separate it out without flaring off methane. It is amazing.”
Several ministry officials joined the minister on the Sept. 4 tour. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
for them to be able to separate out the propane, the methane, the butane and products and sell them to other markets, you know, and then recycle, reuse their own gas in order to heat their system and keep those moving.
Young took note of the Clean Electricity Regulations limitation – a federal program the provincial government has been fighting hard to have rescinded. She said, “They (Steel Reef) would go to the same size they’re currently using, other than the federal government’s clean fuel regulations, which is Clean Electricity Regulations that are not allowing them to increase the capacity.”
Wade Grimes points out portions of the gas plant. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
As for Steel Reef eventually supplying electricity to SaskPower, and how that works into other power considerations, she said, “Everything’s in play right now. We need to continue with our coal. We know it’s sustainable and allows us to continue with the power needs that we have for our province currently, as we work towards nuclear. And this is just another addition to keeping power and lights on in this province.”
Earlier in the day, Young visited the Whitecap Resources-operated Weyburn Unit, which is integral to SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage project. You can read about that portion of the tour here.
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