Canadian crown utility SaskPower said Monday its Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage facility has officially reached its goal of capturing 800,000 metric tons of CO2 in a year. “Now that we have proven the reliability of CCS technology this year, next year we will continue to ensure we meet our commitment to our offtaker and emissions regulations while running the CCS process in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible,” Mike Marsh, SaskPower president and CEO, said in a press release.
October 2016 marked the conclusion of the project’s second full year in service.
Saskatchewan’s New Democratic Party alleged in 2015 that the project’s performance had been misrepresented and that the SaskPower had cost taxpayers a significant amount of money due to fines imposed by offtaker Cenovus for the undersupply of CO2 to the oil company.
While the project was under development in 2014, SaskPower negotiated an agreement to sell CO2 captured at the Boundary Dam project to Cenovus for use in enhanced oil recovery. However, the plant started up a few months later than anticipated, in October 2014 instead of April of that year. Because of the delay, the plant could not capture enough carbon to meet its offtake commitment and was fined. Due to mechanical issues with the CCS unit, SaskPower again had to pay a penalty for undersupplying CO2 in 2015, though that total was offset by the sale of the CO2 it did provide. Boundary Dam captured 425,000 metric tons of CO2 in 2015
The facility did not reach its target capacity until 2016 following a significant maintenance overhaul.
The plant has been online 85 percent of the last year and was operating 100 percent of six of the last 12 months. “CCS technology continues to advance and we have made significant progress. SaskPower is the first in the world to use CCS and as we continue into the future we will continue to make changes to improve our facility,” Marsh said.