Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Computer rendering of the planned Aspen Power Station, west of Lanigan. SaskPower
LANIGAN – Even though the federal government doesn’t want Canadians to be using natural gas power generation (without carbon capture) by 2035, SaskPower turned sod on its next major power plant, the Aspen Power Station, 17 kilometres west of Lanigan on Friday, April 12.
The 370 megawatt combined cycle natural gas-fired generating station will be the Crown utility’s third in recent years, following the Chinook Power Station at Swift Current and Great Plains Power Station at Moose Jaw, which is currently being commissioned.
Combined cycle natural gas-fired power produces roughly half the amount of carbon dioxide compared to a comparable coal-fired power station. They are also more efficient than simple-cycle natural gas-fired power generators, which are often used for peaking.
From left, Chief Edwin Ananas, Beardy’s & Okemasis Cree Nation, Brian Gibney, Reeve of RM of Wolverine, Amber Biemans, SaskPower Board of Directors, Rupen Pandya, SaskPower President & CEO, Minister responsible for SaskPower Dustin Duncan, Jeff Reid, VP, Burns & McDonnell Canada, MLA Travis Keisig of Last Mountain-Touchwood, Jack Gibney, Reeve of RM of Usborne. Photo courtesy SaskPower
SaskPower has selected Burns & McDonnell to be its engineer, procure and construct (EPC) partner for the Aspen Power Station project. The company has been the EPC for both Chinook and Great Plains.
Construction is set to begin this spring, and the facility is expected to come online in 2027.
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“We are pleased to work with Burns & McDonnell on another combined-cycle natural gas facility that will provide reliable power for our province,” said Dustin Duncan, Minister Responsible for SaskPower. “Aspen marks the third major natural gas facility to break ground in the last eight years, with a combined total of 1,100 additional megawatts of generation needed to power our growing province. The Aspen Power Station will also play a critical role during our energy transition in ensuring that SaskPower has sufficient generating capacity when renewables like wind and solar are unavailable.”
The new power station will be located adjacent to the Wolverine switching station with connections to transmission lines going to Regina to the south, Saskatoon to the west, Prince Albert to the north and Yorkton to the east, according to Duncan, who spoke to Pipeline Online after getting back to Regina on Friday.
The location is close to the Nutrien mine at Lanigan, but perhaps more significantly, it’s not that far from the site of BHP’s new Jansen potash mine. Duncan’s predecessor, Don Morgan, told a legislative committee in May last year that SaskPower expected the mine to require 200 megawatts of power once its up and running.
Computer rendering of the planned Aspen Power Station, west of Lanigan. SaskPower
Asked about the significance of the Jansen mine and its relationship to Aspen’s location, Duncan said, “Certainly there are advantages to siting generation near where we need load, such as the BHP Jansen project, but I should just note that power for BHP Jansen is going to come from the grid, and not just one specific source.”
Asked if Aspen is being designed with the possibility of future carbon capture, Duncan said, “We are doing engineering work to examine the feasibility of adding carbon capture to one of the combined cycle power stations. There’s enough room on the Aspen site, in the event that we do have to build carbon capture. But modifications would be required, and obviously there needs to be an additional investment.
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“So we are looking at that, not specific to that site, but specific to the combined cycle power stations,” he said, referring to Chinook and Great Plains Power Stations.
And if carbon capture were to be installed on one of those stations, where would that CO2 go? Duncan said it would have to be sold to an offtaker, and they are obviously very early into this, so one has not been identified. But if that doesn’t work out, an option would be to pump it into the ground for deep geologic storage, just as the Aquistore project has done with a small portion of the CO2 from the Boundary Dam Unit 3 Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project.
SaskPower has previously indicated that a carbon capture unit could cost as much as a billion dollars. The April 12 press release did not indicate the cost for this project, but a year ago, SaskPower was estimating the power plant (without carbon capture) could cost in the range of $850 million.
As for whether Aspen is meant replace some of SaskPower’s coal-fired power generation, or to handle anticipated growth in demand, Duncan said, “It’s a combination of both. Obviously, we have several units that are reaching 50 year end of life with respect to conventional coal. It also though, is because of increased demand that we’re seeing in Saskatchewan. So it’s not one or the other. It’s a combination of several different factors.”
SaskPower is currently in the process of adding hundreds of megawatts of wind and solar generation in the coming years, with the 200 megawatt Bekevar Yotin Wind Facility currently under construction near Kipling by an independent power producer as an example. Asked how this new, large natural gas power plant fits in with the incorporation of more renewables like Bekevar, Duncan said, “The design of this unit provides flexibility to ensure that we have reliability for when there is the opportunity to bring renewables (in), when renewables are in fact working. So the power station has the ability to ramp up and down quickly to accommodate any fluctuations that we’re seeing in solar or in wind. So, it does provide for flexibility to incorporate renewables, when they’re working.”
Chinook, the first of this series of larger natural gas power station, has experienced some difficulties, but Duncan said it’s working now.
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“Yeah, Chinook did experience some unplanned outages last year. However, those challenges have, for the most part, been overcome. And Chinook’s been operating smoothly, I’m told, as of today, for 139 consecutive days. So, for about the last four and a half months, we’ve had no issues. Great Plains Is commissioning right now, outside of Moose Jaw, and so over the next couple of months they’ll go through the commissioning process and we’ll see that coming online here late spring, early this summer,” he said.
There are other substantial natural gas power stations in the SaskPower grid including two at North Battleford. One is SaskPower’s Yellowhead Power Station, at 135 megawatts, in North Battleford. It went online in 2013. A few kilometres southeast of North Battleford, independent power producer Northland Power operates the 289 megawatt North Battleford Power Station, which went online in 2013. That may not seem like a long time ago, but the life expectancy of a natural gas power station is considerably less than a coal-fired power station, generally 25-30 years as opposed to 50 for coal. And by the time Aspen comes online, those two power stations will be roughly halfway there.
Asked if SaskPower is looking at their eventual refurbishment or replacement, or if they were expecting a much longer operational cycle than 25 years, Duncan said, “At this point, no final decisions have been made on that. But certainly, we would likely be looking to make investments to extend the life of those facilities. How long that would be and what that investment would look like, it’s too early to say. But likely, just based on the demand that we’re seeing in the province for increasing load growth over the coming decades, we’ll need those power stations. And so, we likely would be looking at some sort of investment to extend the life of them.”
As Northland is privately operated, SaskPower would be talking to them about extending the contract, he confirmed.
With construction on Aspen set to begin this spring, SaskPower and Burns & McDonnell will soon hold outreach sessions for local contractors and suppliers to learn what opportunities are available. Vendors interested in providing services for this project are encouraged to reach out to Burns & McDonnell directly as well, SaskPower said in a release.
“Participation from local and Indigenous companies, contractors and workers has been critically important in helping build Great Plains Power Station in Moose Jaw,” said Rupen Pandya, SaskPower president and CEO. “We are committed to achieving the same or a higher level of local and Indigenous support on the Aspen Power Station Project.”
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